
Book <^-^ 



C-QPyRiOHT DEPOSIT 



Suggestive Illustrations 



GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW 



ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ALL SOURCES 

PICTURESQUE GREEK WORDS 

LIBRARY REFERENCES TO FURTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 

PHOTOGRAPHS OF CELEBRATED PICTURES 
REFERRED TO 



FOR THE USE OF 

LEADERS OF PRAYER-MEETINGS, CHRISTIAN ENDEAVORERS, 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHERS. PASTORS 



REV. F. N. PELOUBET, D. D. 

AUTHOR OF " SELECT NOTES " ON THE INTERNATIONAL LESSONS, ETC. 




^^\^V\Ct OF ^^S 



14 




'<-A: 



NEW YORK 



^^'^r of 



E. R. HERRICK & COMPANY 



PUBLISHERS 
C 



rv 



:;OFI£S RECEIVE 



5^n ^r\ V (^^^ 






1122 



Copyright, 1897, 
By E. R. HERRICK & COMPANY. 

A// Rights Reserved. 



PRTiss or 

B. O. JENKINS' SON, 
NEW YOKK. 



/ 1± 



" * Can you apply a parable ' ? says one of Robert Louis Steven- 
son's characters. * It is not the same thing as a reason but usually 
vastly more convincing.' ' Every natural fact is a symbol of some 
spiritual fact, and no spiritual fact can be understood except by first 
knowing the natural fact, which is, as it were, its double.' " Illus- 
trations from nature, " all are but letters of the alphabet by which 
we spell Influenced " How may we gain this power to enrich our 
teaching with side-lights ? First, by studying the great masters of 
the art of illustration ; Beecher, Spurgeon, Dr. Parkhurst, are all 
worthy of emulation. In a recent sermon Dr. Parkhurst illustrated 
his single point from botany, physics, physiology, a ship, and from 
the actual experience."— Walter L. Hervey, Ph.D., President of 
Teacher s'' College, New York, in " Picture Work." 

^-^ \S 

" Language becomes more picturesque as we recede toward its 
earlier forms. Primitive speech is largely figurative ; primitive 
words are pictures. As the language becomes the expression of 

a more conventional and artificial life, .... the old words 

" pass into conventional symbols None the less these words 

forever carry hidden in their bosom their original pictures and the 
mark of the blow which struck each into life." " In the histories 
of its choicest words, Christianity asserts itself as a redeemer of 
human speech. The list of New Testament words lifted out of 
ignoble associations and uses, and mitred as ministers of sacred 
truth, is a long and significant one ; and there are few more fasci- 
nating lines of study than this." — Prof. M. R. Vincent, D.D., in the 
preface to his " Word-Studies." 



" Of all the things that a teacher should know how to do, the 
most important, without any exception, is to be able to tell a story.'* 
— G, Stanley Hall, President of Clark University » 



" Picturesque language means that he who employs it is a man in 
alliance with Truth and God." " Hence good writings and brilliant 
discourse are perpetual allegories." " And with these forms, the 
spells of persuasion, the keys of power, are put into his hands." 

— Ralph Waldo Emerson. 



PREFACE. 

The series of volumes, of which this is the first, is entitled 
Suggestive Illustrations, because its object is quite as much to 
suggest other illustrations as to furnish material ready for use. It 
is not only sifted wheat gathered into the granary for daily con- 
sumption, but seed-grain for another and larger harvest. 

We often think best while hearing or reading the thoughts of 
others whose words are fruitful in suggestions, and a^e to the mind 
what spring sunshine and shadows are to the seeds dormant within 
the soil. 

This series has had a double origin. In the first place it has 
grown out of my own personal experience. There are certain sub- 
jects that I never see with perfect clearness and satisfaction till I 
see some corresponding illustration in Nature ; " which is, as it were, 
its double." Almost everything in Nature has its counterpart in the 
spiritual world. Mrs. Browning sings, 

" Earth's crammed with heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God." 

Nature seems to have been created with a purpose to express in vis- 
ible and concrete forms the spiritual truths we most need in our 
daily lives. A very large number of our words expressing unseen 
things are metaphors drawn from physical nature. 

" Every-day life," H. Burton says, "to those who have ears to hear, 
is full of tropes, metaphors, and parables. Take up the commonest 
words of daily speech, and put them to your ear, and they will sing 
like shells from the sea. There are whole poems in them, epics, 
idyls of every sort." 

Hence it is natural that what small success I have had as a 
preacher or teacher, or writer for teachers, has come largely by 
means of a certain kind of illustrations ; not stories, for those I sel- 
dom use, but illustrations which illumine a subject as a light within 
a cathedral illumines the windows, while dull and vague to the out- 



VI PREFACE 

side observer, become, to one within, pictures exquisitely beautiful 
in form and color. 

In this respect as well as in others, Suggestive Illustrations 
differs so far as I am acquainted, from all other volumes which seek 
to illustrate the books of the New Testament. 

In the second place this series may be called "Chips from the 
Teacher's Workshop." For the illustrations have been gathered 
and sifted during all my life as student, pastor, teacher in the Sun- 
day-school, and writer for teachers. It is the summing up of my 
whole life in this department. May you 

" read between the written lines 
The finer grace of unfulfilled designs." 

This book is intended fo be especially helpful to those who lead 
prayer meetings, particularly the members of Christian Endeavor 
Societies and Epworth Leagues, to Sunday-school teachers who 
desire further illustrations than can be found in Select Notes and 
the other Helps ; to pastors and to parents who gather their children 
for Scripture reading and prayer. 

AUBURNDALE, MASS., 

September y 1897. 



INDEX 



PAGE. 

Abou ben Adhem 409 

Accompaniments, not causes 95 

Actors on fire 377 

Africans and the mirror 37 

Ala'uaster boxes of sympathy 418 

All these added ; Medical science 135 

Alpaca, The ; Neither sheep nor 

goat 406 

Ambition, Deadly 316 

Ancestry, Choosing from 4 

Ancient shield only a pot-hd 94 

Angelic deliverance. (Poem) 431 

Angels in the kitchen 26 

Angels ministering 58 

Animals choosing a king ; The test. . 31 

Answers to prayer 359 

Anxieties in Christian lands 130 

Apple in a bottle 333 

Apostles made out of common men. . 201 

Arbitrary tests 141 

Archangels aid to an ant 11^ 

Argon 234, 403 

Argus' eyes 397 

Ariosto's story . . 3 jo 

Aristotle's fancy of one seeing the 

sun for first time 197 

Aristotle, Fancy of 6t 

Aromatic clay 191 

Artificial bee, The.. 372 

"As it is in heaven." (Poem) 112 

Ask and receive 153 

As litt.e children 315 

Assistant teacher, The 375 

As the wild waters rest 227 

" Aut Caesar, aut nullus." 314 

A wonderful thought. (Poem) 208 

Axe at root of the trees 39 

Bad eye factory 127 

Ballad of the trees. (Lanier) ... 424 

Banished kings. The 122 

Bank of England tests 265 

Baptism by John. . . , 35 

Baptize with the Holy Ghost 39 

Barley loaves. Five. (Poem) '. 276 

Barnacles 231 

Bar-room changed into parlor 435 

Barter, A foolish 302 

Bartholdi's statue of Liberty 62 

Bas-relief in Verona covered with 
raaistic 94 



Battle field of the heart. Victories on. 58 
Bearing the burdens of the future. 

(Poem) 138 

Beatitudes in Gospel and in Revela- 
tion 74 

Beatitudes, relation one to another. . . 74 

Beautiful snow 317 

Bell and the clapper 143 

Pell and its mould 89 

Bell and the flute 81 

Bell of the angels. (Poem) 98 

" Beyond the Dreams of Avarice.". . . 303 

Binghamton water-works 150 

Birds devouring seeds in Syria 241 

Birds, How God cares for them ..... 130 

Birds, Lessons from 130 

Birds scenting prey ; Crimean w^ar.. . 387 

Black coal in the sunlight 115 

Blessed 75 

Blind Bartimeus. (Poem) 347 

Blind boy's experience 197 

Blind, Compensations for the 347 

BHnd leading the blind 288 

Blind man and his lantern 86 

Blind men ; many in Palestine 346 

BHndness, Mental 197 

Bloodless Sportsman, The 67 

Bog or brook 205 

Bonar's, Dr., dream 406 

Brain, Our double 28 

Branches strewn ; Historic examples. 350 

Bright eyes and dark eyes 199 

Broken vase. The 316 

Brooklyn bridge, Tests of 48 

Bruce's heart 126 

Buddha, Temptation of 50 

Building the tombs of the prophets.. . 381 

Bulstrode Wheelock 133 

Bunyan's Christian, saving his life . . 86 

Burden is light 226 

Burning Tyndale's testaments 228 

Calls for healing in the East 172 

Cape of Storms, to Cape of Good 

Hope 4S3 

Casket of promises 146 

Casting garments before the Lord . . . 3^9 

Catalysis 257 

Cathedral windows 305 

Cesarem vehis 178 

City of False Pleasure ... 97 



Vlll 



INDEX 



Clay, The plastic. (Poem) 332 

Cleansing a church 355 

Clock, Non-interference with 151 

Comforted 76 

Chalmer's Kilmany experience 90 

Changes in natural objects 307 

Change to be wrought in our bodies. . 308 

Character, Two sides to 141 

Check, A, as a promise 360 

Children and the church , 333 

Children brought to Jesus. (Poem) . 330 
Children, Caring for the. (Poem) . . 332 

Children joining the church 332 

Children's voices 331 

Chloroform, Two experiences under. 434 

Choir Invisible, The 352 

Christ fulfilling the law 90 

Christ fulfilling nature - 91 

Christ the light of the world, Pict- 
ure of 62 

Christianity and healing 71 

Christianity, Progress of 256 

Churches, Three kinds of 90 

Cleansing the temple, A t5rpe 355 

Climbing the treasure mountain 122 

Cobwebs, Sweeping away the 94 

Cologne cathedral windows. , 266 

Comma for a hyphen 92 

Common people. Transformation of. 65 

Compensations 347 

Compound interest 74 

Concealed snakes in Africa 29 

Confession 210 

Conscience entangled with the stom- 
ach 136 

Conversions, Early 336 

Correggio's picture of the Christ-child 17 

Contract with Satan 302 

Convictions, Imperfect, Herod 271 

Count Amaldos. (Poem) 58 

Courage, True 424 

Covenant of salt 420 

Cow of Isis 417 

Cranmer, Recanting 318 

Crimean war, begun by a zinc-patch. 93 

Criminals, Origin of 332 

Cromwell and tlie silver apostles 397 

Cross, The symbol of love 442 

Cross, Ways of bearing 298 

Crown hung over a precipice 299 

Curse on the fig-tree 357 

Cuthbert's way out. (Poem) iSo 

Daily bread 113 

Dante on Transfiguration 307 

Dark day, The 391 

Date of Christ's birth. (Diagram),. 8 

Dawn of the new kingdom 304 

Dead prayer office. The 148 

Defeats that are victories 444 

Defend actively, not passively 435 



PAGE. 

Deafness to certain sounds 246 

Deafness, Peculiar kind of 245 

Deafness, Moral 246 

Debt of 10,000 talents 324 

Debtors in Palestine 324 

Debtors, Roman 325 

Delayed blessings office 155 

Delays are not denials 150 

Deliverance, Two ways of 118 

Demoniacs, modern examples 185 

Depression from ill-health 213 

Desert, The, and rain 121 

Despise not little ones 318 

Devil, A personal 44 

Devil sowing tares. (Picture) 252 

Disappointed pray-er 149 

Disciples rebuking the mothers 331 

Discouraged workers, Examples of. . 213 
Diseases, Different kinds, cured by 

Jesus 69 

Dispersion of light 85 

Dispersion of light, Persecution 206 

Disturbance as a sign of life ........ 385 

Doing God's will iii 

Doing no harm 411 

Door was shut. (In India) 25 

Dreading the future. (J. Foster's ex- 

perience( 138 

Dream of Pilate's wife 437 

Drop of ink in book 435 

Durer's little passion 427 

Dust on your glasses 143 

Dying words of Alfred Cookman. 

(Poem) 446 

Eating together 421 

Eddystone light-house 165 

Effects of a revival in the Baltimore 

piison 5 

Electric calls 146 

Elixir of life 15 

Emperor of China, Way prepared for 31 

Emptying by filling 237 

Enemies aid a good cause 17 

Enemies, How to destroy. . ., lor 

Enemies, Love for. (Poem) loi 

Enough of something . . 282 

Enthusiasm, Stones crying out 356 

Epitaph, An ... 336 

Escaping responsibility 439 

Eugene Aram, Dream of 412 

Euloe:ies of the dead 382 

Evil thougiits 98 

Exchange, A foolish 30J 

Excess of good, evil 244 

Expectation of a deliverer. (Virgil, 
Socrates, Plato, Confucius, Zoroas- 
ter) II 

Exporting religion 279 

Expression of feeling 210 

Expression, Power of 95 



INDEX 



IX 



rAGE. 

Exclusion, not arbitrary. , , » 93 

Eye ointment, The 198 

Eyes that see not 248 

Eye, The single 126 

Fable of the garden 295 

Fantasy of Hawthorne, A 135, 136 

Fairy, The. (A northern legend) 300 

Faith , (Poem) 361 

Faith, According to thy 171 

Faith and foot power 170 

Faith developed by difficulties 288 

Faith, Foundation of 170 

Faith made thee whole 195 

Faith's optimism 360 

Far from this man in Paradise 340 

Fate of the murderers of Jesus 440 

Fault-finding 192 

Fault-finding, Evil of 229 

Faults, Bright sayings about 144 

Faults of good men 435 

Fears, A study of 37 

Fear them not 207 

Feast-parables, in Talmud 365 

Feet trembled, but rock did not 165 

Fiery cross, The 204 

Figure-head or screw 3x5 

Finding what is sought 432 

Fire as a symbol of the Holy Spirit . . 41 

Fire as servant or master 129 

First shall be last 341 

Fishers of men 65 

Fishing, Art of 66, 67 

Fishing for men 265 

Fishing in the Sea of Galilee 264 

Flag that was fulfilled 91 

Floods in the East 166 

Flowers of Palestine 132 

Fly on cathedral pillar 139 

Forgiving seventy times 323 

Forgive us our debts IT4 

Forgiveness taking away sin 115 

Forsook all, what Matthew forsook.. 190 

Fountain beneath the sea ... 234 

Fountain of youth 15 

Fragments that remained 281 

Freely receive, freely give. 205 

Frog boiled unconsciously 30 

Frozen lamps 88 

Fruit the test 162 

Fruits, Different, from same soil 163 

Fulfilling, not destroying 89 

Gain by giving 280 

Galilee 59 

Galilee, Sea of, (Poem) 64 

Game of Hfe. ( Retzsch's) 47 

Garden of the Hesperides, 327 

Garibaldi and the lost sheep 321 

Garment spread at Bethlehem in 
1834 349 



PAGE. 

Garments spreading by Sir Walter 

Raleigh 349 

Gate, The narrow ; classic parallels , . 159 

Gates of heU 294 

Gathered of every kind 264 

Gehenna fire. The 96 

Gem among pebbles 390 

Genealogy ; Four successive names . . i 

Getting Christ's touch 194 

Gifts from God 113 

Giotto's picture in Florence covered 

and rediscovered 94 

Giving light 87 

God's care for small things 133 

God the sum of love 322 

God's forgiving love 190 

Gold waste saved in watch factory. . . 282 
Golden Rule in the Stock Exchange., 157 

Good constitution as a safeguard 117 

Good from the unpromising 369 

Good seed, The 240 

Good soil and weeds 251 

Gospel ; A marriage feast 366 

Gospel of Peter, Extract from 446 

Gospel, The good news i 

Grafted apple-tree 39 

Grain, Productiveness of 245 

Greater Passion, Durer's 427 

Great men of humble origin 266 

Greatness by service (Poem) 376 

Greatness for service 345 

Greyson letters 136 

Growing worse under the best influ- 
ences. (Judas, Robespierre, Alci- 

biades) 428 

Growth by desires and their satisfac- 
tion 78 

Habit, Youthful, bursting forth in 

age 434 

Haydon's picture of Christ 287 

Hall Caine's legend 47 

Hallowing God's name 109 

Harmony point on high 308 

Hands showing character 164 

" Hands Off." (E. E. Hale's story). . 110 

Harvard ]\Iemorial Hall 409 

Harvest, Uke the seed 254 

Haunted men 268 

Healing, a type of Christ's work . . . 356 

HeaHng and Christianity 71 

Heart and the treasure 125 

Heart, A new, needed 28 

He careth for me. ( Poem) 209 

" Heir of all the ages " was Jesus 3 

Herald, The, in Alexandria 32 

Hercules' choice 160 

Hercules, Temptation of 50 

Heliogram, A ic6 

Herodias and the statue of John 274 

Hesperides' garden 329 



INDEX 



FACE. 

Hid treasures in Syria 259 

High experiences transformed into 

life 309, 310 

Hogarth's tail-piece 388 

Holding one's peace 432 

Holy land everywhere. (Poem) 7 

Holy spirit, Degrees of, illustrated , . 40 

Holy spirit, like a dove 43 

Homes and the children 334 

Home, Deiinition of 328 

Home, Importance of 329 

Honey, Wild, in Palestine 35 

Hope as a means of cure 168 

House dogs. Little 289 

How God helps. 174 

Hunger . 78 

Hunger, Temptation through 52 

Hundred gates of Thebes .-. 426 

Hypocrites, As they do 103 

Hypocrites ; Comparisons 378 

Hypocrisy, The cure of 379 

Hypocrites : their reward 104 

Ignorant asking 154 

Image of God, Impress of 371 

"I may not stay." (Poem) no 

Immortality of the soul 309 

Imperfections in all. (Poem) 297 

Inchcape Rock. (Poem) 233 

Incident at Northfield. (Meyer) 63 

Increase of power by use 400, 401 

Inequahties among men 135, 136 

In search of the man of sin 141 

Insects with wings 45 

Inscription on Milan cathedral 335 

Intimations of immortality. (Poem). 7 

Inventions before their time 241 

Invitations, Making Ught of 367 

Ithuriel's spear 378 

" I was a wandering sheep." (A war 

story) 36 

Jeremiah's land purchase 357 

Jesus, Appearance of 60 

Jesus, his school training '. 25 

Jesus refusing to change stones into 

bread. (Poem) 53 

Jesus, The name of 5 

Jesus' vision of the kingdoms 56 

Jewel and dirt upon it 231 

Jewel and the case 231 

John, Courage of 271 

John Huss' dream 269 

Jeseph, the carpenter. (Poem) 266 

Joseph's wagons 214 

Jot or tittle 92 

Judas, Brutus. (Poem) 419 

Judas, Picture of, at Brussels 428 

Judging others 139 

Judging the bay when tide is out 140 

Judgment, The last 415 



PAGE, 

Judson's experience , 153 

Juftak, The Persian bird 302 

Key of promise 145 

Keys of the kingdom 294 

Kingdom come. Thy 109 

Kingdom for a dance 271 

Kingdom of heaven at hand 39 

Kingdom of God, Love for 109 

Knowing your ship is safe 293 

Laborers praying for more laborers. 200 

La Conscience. (Hugo) 412 

Land of pretty soon, The. (Poem) . . 395 

Latimer, Bishop, and Henry VIII . . . 270 

Latimer, Bishops, and Ridley ... 273 

Laughed him to scorn 195 

Leaning tower of Pisa 435 

Leaven, its method of working 257 

Legend beautiful. . 311 

Legend of the Christ-child in La 

Notte 9 

Legend — the lily criticized by the com. 132 

Legend of Og, king of Bashan 22 

Legend of Prague. (Poem) 361 

Legend of the four acorns 114 

Legends of the journey into Egypt. . . 20 

Legends of way to the cross 442 

Legends of the wise men 10 

Leprosy a type of sin 167 

Leprosy, how it was cured , 168 

Leprosy of the Bible 167 

Life compared to the sea. (Poem). . 177 

Life of Christ, General view 59 

Lighted cross. The 306 

Light from garbage 369 

Light, Giving 87 

Light-house keeper 86 

Light-house, one pane lost 88 

Light, Let your, shine 88 

Light, Power of 60 

Lights bright and all is well 88 

Light, three kinds of rays 86 

Like to like 259 

Lilies, Consider the 131 

Lily, The Huleh 131 

Line of least resistance 160 

Little faith in a great God 285 

Living in the future. (Poem) 273 

Loch Katrine and Glasgow water- 
works 345 

Locusts eaten by Indians 34 

Look up and live 284 

"Lord for to-morrow and its needs." 

(Poem) 137 

Lord's prayer, envelope form 108 

Losses. (Poem) 179 

Lost on the prairie 288 

Lost sheep 204 

Love, a fountain 373 

Loving God with all the heart 373 



INDEX 



XI 



PAGE. 

Luther's experience 2x4 

Luther's sign in the heavens 388 

Lying, Punishment of 433 

Mahmoud, the idol breaker 340 

Making light of Christ's in\dtations. . 367 

Mammon, Milton's description of 128 

Man that could not lie 136 

Manuscripts of God. (Poem) 239 

Marching orders, Our 456 

Marmion and his fears 355 

Marriage feast, Summons to 366 

Marvelous love of God 321 

Marcus Aurelius, A saying of 438 

Mary at the feast. (Poem) 417 

Massacre of the innocents 21 

Measuring day 406 

Measure of love. (Poem) 374 

Measure of the missionary spirit 457 

Medical missions. (Isabella Bishop) 71 

Mediocrity, Dangers of 398 

Mediocrity, Usefulness of. (Poem). 398 

Meek, Blessedness of 77 

Mercy, Quality of, not strained. 

(Poem) 78 

Meteorites becoming meteors 207 

Militant, Termagant, Constructant, 

Churches 90 

Mills of God, The 364 

Milton's picture of Jesus seeing the 

kingdoms of the world 55 

Mine or chest 123 

Miracles as object lessons 71 

Miracles of Christ, Number of 70 

Miracles, Matthew Arnold's argument 175 

Miracles natural to Christ 175 

Miracle, What is a 174 

Missionary and the tigers . 432 

Missionary religions only are alive . . . 456 

Mockeries, Modern . 440, 441 

Modem miracle of the loaves. (Poem) 275 

Modem proofs of the gospel 176 

Mokanna, the veiled prophet 379 

Money changers in the temple 354 

Money, The love of 337 

Monsters with two faces ; Hypocrites 392 
Moody's, D^vight L., religious experi- 
ence 40 

Moral paralysis 189 

More life. (Poem) 335 

More truth to be revealed 261 

Mote and beam 143 

Motto under the cross 446 

Mountain tops and plains 312 

Mountains, Removing 358 

Myrrh, frankincense and gold. (Poem) 18 

My neighbor. (Poem) 142 

Myrrh-bearers. (Poem) 451 

Narrowness of the gate 158 

Nature from God 114 



PAGE. 

Nazarene, He shall be called 27 

Need of healing in the east 290 

Neglect, Danger of 367 

Ne plus ultra, and plus ultra 401 

Nescit reverti 177 

New forms, Necessity of 193 

New shoot. The. (Oak or fir) 27 

New stars 14 

New treasures in old things 261 

New vision and new life 215 

Nineteenth century the same as the 

previous ones 3 

Ninety and nine, The 320 

Non-resistance, Heroism of 100 

Northern legend. (Hall Caine). ... 47 

Not if it were my boy 321 

Not to destroy, but to fulfil 89 

Novus ordo seculomm 64 

Offences 316 

Oil on the troubled waters 182 

Ointment, The broken box of 418 

Omission, Sins of 411 

One crop, but of oaks 255 

Only by a word. (Poem) 235 

Opportunities and faithfulness 401 

Opportunities, A picture 396 

Origin of Sankey's "Ninety and nine" 320 

Optimism of faith. (Poem) 360 

Our country, right or wrong 368 

Overcoming evil with good 102 

Paganini, Anecdote of. (Poem) . . . 368 

Painter's Parable 252 

Palace beautiful 421 

Palestine, Population of 9 

Palsy a type of sin 188 

Paper flower decorations 380 

Parable from the Talmud 365 

Parable, What is a 239 

Parley the Porter 390 

Past Redemption Point 233 

Patriot, The. (Browning's poem) . . . 351 

Peace, Inner, in a storm 283 

Peacemakers, Blessed 81 

Pearl of great price 262 

Pearls before swine. (Poem) 145 

Pearls, Seeking goodly 262 

Pearls, Value of 262, 263 

Pedigree, Value of 2 

Penalty, Not arbitrary 327 

Perfect as your Father 102 

Persecuted, Blessings of the 82 

Persian fable 448 

Peter, Change of name 64 

Peter's wife's mother 172 

Phseacians, Oath of 327 

Philosopher's stone 15 

Picture in Wicklifife's Bible 206 

Pictures of the Lord's supper. (Sig- 

norelli, Da Vinci, Tintoretto) 422 



Xll 



INDEX 



PAGE. 

Piute Indians eating locusts 34 

Pillars of Hercules 401 

Plato's marine glaucus 231 

Pompey's triumph 351 

Poor in spirit 76 

Possibilities 191 

Possibilities from the A, B, C 402 

Powder-mill piety 242 

Power of personal influence, 188 

Power of snow , 119 

Palsy 169 

Prayer and natural law 150 

Prayer, Blessings of unanswered .... 154 

Prayer like a bell-rope 106 

Prayer like perfume 156 

Prayer of the ignorant man 428 

Prayer of the unforgiving man 120 

Prayer, Power of. (Poem) -. 357 

Prayer, The belfry rope 156 

Prayer, Three ways of answering . . . 151 

Prayers, Why some not answered.. . . 148 

Prayer, Ways of answering 147 

Prayer for temporal blessings 147 

Praying for the wrong train 155 

Praying with the feet 147 

Prayer-wheels 107 

Preparing the way of the Lord 29, 31 

Preparing the way ; Applications. ... 33 
Preparation in order to the best 

things 344, 345 

Prince Albert's prayer 134 

Prince of Wales, Way prepared for. . 32 

Prisoner of Chillon, The 215 

Procession, Invisible, accompanying 

Christ 352 

Procrastination. (Poem) 395 

Productiveness of coffee, barley, etc. . 245 

Profanity, Evil of 99 

Progress of Christianity 256 

Promise, A pecuhar 359 

Prophecies of Christ fulfilled. (Dia- 
gram) 6 

Prophecies pointing to Christ. (Dia- 
gram) 6 

Pulpit reflectors '. 85 

Pure in heart 79 

Purity, What it is 79 

Pythagoras' comparison of life to a Y. 159 

Quaker's, The, dream 355 

Queen's jubilee 35° 

Rain-storms in the East 165 

Railway train of life in La Bete Hu- 

maine 8 

Rappacini's daughter 51 

Rays of light. Three kinds of 86 

Receiving by giving 279 

Recovery of sight 348 

Red fisherman, The 55 



PAGE. 

Rejected glass and the beautiful win- 
dow 191 

Rejoicing in iniquity 145 

Religion and a bad business 187 

Religious systems, True tests of 5 

Removing mountains 358 

Repentance, Need of 63 

Repentance 28 

Repenting, The power of .... , 28 

Repose in Egypt, The 20 

Resist not evil 99 

Rest, The need of 277 

Rest, Two ways of fijnding 225 

Resurrection ; Angel and the seeds... 454 

Resurrection of Christ 296 

Resurrection ; seeds and flowers 455 

Resurrection ; Watch and its case . , . 455 

Revivals, Need of 30 

Revivals, Tests of 30 

Reward, The. (Poem) 410 

Rewards, Nature of 76 

Reward openly 105 

Reward of prayer, The true 106 

Riches, National and individual 135 

Right hand and left 104 

Rime of the ancient mariner. (Poem) 96 

Rising or setting sun 463 

Rock of ages, Two pictures of 188 

Rooms to let with power 41 

Roman empire. Population of 8 

Roses on demons 383 

Rowing while fastened to the wharf.. 337 

Rowing with the anchor down 176 

Ruskin on the beauty of common 

forms 42T 

Russian diamond mines. (Legend) . . 301 

Russian soldiers and Napoleon 100 

Sabbath prohibitions, Jewish 229 

" Sadder sight than eye can know." 

(Poem) 317 

Salon Carre 73 

Salt, Covenant of 83 

Salt destroying evil 83 

Salt that has lost its savor 84 

Satan quoting scripture 54 

Satan, the guise he comes in 44 

Saved in order to save 86 

Saving a wreck by a speaking trum- 
pet 205 

Saving the unseen waste in the mint . 282 
Saxe's poem. Dogma of the ancient 

sages ... 91 

Schools and schoolmasters of Jesus. . 23 

Schoolmaster's dream, The 336 

Scriptures, Not knowing 372 

Scotch thistle in Canada 252 

Smoking flax 232 

Sea. Historic comparisons 178 

Seed, The living 249 

Seeds by the wayside 240 



INDEX 



XIU 



PAGE. 

Seeds in a cupful of mud 240 

Seeing God 80 

Seeing the best in man 192 

Seekers after God 15 

Seek ye first 134 

S-lf-denial 295 

Self-seeking spirit 314 

Self-salvation. (Laocoon) 169 

Seraphim and the crucifixion . (Poem) 445 

Seven fears changed to joys 352 

Seven fears changed to seven joys . . . 297 

Sheep or goats 406 

Ship coming empty into port 337 

Ships and the ocean 117 

Shipwreck, Picture of 181 

Shoe pegs and ships 92 

Short lives that are long 272 

Siddartha, Prince 352 

Sidney Smith's story 95 

Sight, Experience of recover)' of 348 

Silence of Christ 432 

Silk worm, Effects of over-care 49 

Sinking of a town. 166 

Silver egg in Dresden 123 

Sin more than a losing game 36 

Sin, Names for 114 

Sir Walter Raleigh and his cloak 349 

SkiU in fishing for men 67 

Skitzlanders, The 357 

Sleeping at his post 391 

Sleeping on guard. 390 

Soft stone becoming hard 293 

Solomon's experiment 339 

Solomon in his glory 132 

Soul of Peter Garcia 126 

Sower and sowing 240 

Spirit proved by the deeds 409 

Spiritual insight . (Poem) 198 

Spreading the fire 85 

St. Brendan. (Poem) 429 

St. Paul's, Desecration of 354 

St. Thomas and King Gondoforus. 

(Poem) 123 

Star in the East, conjunction of plan- 
ets 13 

Stars in the East, Our 16 

Starved in his own treasury 302 

Stations of the cross 442 

Stature, adding one cubit to 131 

Stepping-stones of our dead selves. 

(Poem) . . 401 

Stonewall Jackson's prayer 155 

Stone which the builders rejected 363 

Stones of Rome. Antony's speech . . 356 
" Stones of Rome rise," etc. (Poem). 39 

Storm breaking up a dead calm 30 

Straight gate, The 157 

Straining out a gnat 381 

"Strike here," from Morituri Saluta- 

rnus. (Poem) 125 

Strive yet, I do not promise. (Poem) 153 



PAGE. 

Story of Angelo's statue of David . . . 318 

Story of Raphael's last picture 305 

Studying the sermon on the mount . . 73 

Success 272 

Sultan Mahmoud and wedding gar- 
ments 370 

Sunflowers and wasps 80 

Surface, or depths, or the sea 176 

Swearing, Cheap pay for 99 

Swine at the lion's feast 417 

Swine, Eating like 113 

Sympathetic jewel, The 194 

Symphony of prayer 323 

Tales of a wayside inn 359 

Talents, Parable of 397 

Talitha Cumi. (Poem) ig6 

Talk with St. Peter. (Poem) 285 

Tares and wheat together 253 

Tares, sown among wheat ; Modem 

examples 250 

Telescope reversed 143 

Temperance preparing tlie way 33 

Tempest of sin 183 

Temptation, Classical stories of 52 

Temptation, Danger of going into . . 117 

Temptation, Keeping out of 116 

Temptation, no sham fight 44 

Temptation of Jesus 44 

Temptation, Safeguard against 117 

Temptation, Two forms of 51 

Temptations, Necessity of 49 

Tempted, How a holy being can be. . 46 

Tempter, The, pictures of 46 

Test of a prince 42 

Test of fruit 162 

Tests and temptations 47 

Tests, Wrong kinds of 399 

Testing the disciples 283 

Tetanus, a case in Bangor 169 

The crisis. (Poem) 437 

The fiery cross. (Poem) 385 

The magnet rock 117 

The sowers. (Poem) 255 

The suppliant. (Poem) 152 

The transformed boy 186 

The two rabbis 384 

The two tides. (Poem) 115 

The two travelers 246 

Thine the glory 119 

Things new and old 265 

Tnistle seeds, G^hering the scattered 235 

Thorns in Palestine 242 

Thought, Take no 129 

Three days and three nights 236 

Thy will not mine 425 

Tides in bay of Fundy 375 

To him that hath 400 

Tombs of the prophets near Jerusalem 381 

Too late 396 

Torches, Signalling by 385 



XIV 



INDEX 



PAGE. 

Tormented 170 

Tormentors, The 325 

To-morrow, (Poem) , 395 

Torture of the mirror 326 

Touch, Power of 194 

Touched hem of his garment 193 

Touches of Jesus, The 196 

Tracks into, not out of, the cave 453 

Training by daily labor 25 

Tranr.figuration, Raphael's 305 

Transfigured Uves 309 

Transfigured water 309 

Transforming power of the gospel . . 186 

Treasure and the heart 125 

Tree grown in an hour 280 

Trees killed by entwining plants 244 

Treasures of religion 123 

Treasure ships and pirates 117 

Tribulation .' . . 249 

Trinity chimes and city noise 241 

Triumphs of the bUnd . . 198 

Tnumph of the innocents. (Holman 

Hunt's picture) 22 

Triumphal procession to come 353 

Troll, The, a northern legend 47 

Trumpet, Sounding a 103 

Truth forever on the scaffold. (Poem) 444 

Truthfulness and accuracy 256 

Twelve apostles ; their personality... 201 

Twelve baskets full 279 

Two agreeing in prayer 323 

Two bags of wheat 397 

Two destinies. (Poem).., = o .0415. 4^6 

Two maps, The 214 

Two pictures. The 412 

Two by two 202 

Two wallets. The 143 

Twice two more than four 386 

Tycho Brahe's new star 14 

Tyndall on prayer 150 

Ulysses asleep, Loss by 39° 

Unconscious influences 250 

Unconscious goodness 409 

Understanding others 1^0 

Unforgiving man, The 120 

Unforgiving, unforgiven 121 

United States Seal, Reverse side 64 

Unity in variety in the apostles 203 

Unpardonable sin 232 

Unseen realities around us. (Poem) . 261 

Up to Jerusalem 343 

Use, Growth by 400 

Vain repetitions 107 

Vale of tears. (Dore's) 199 

Valuable refuse 281 



PAGE. 

Valuing the sun 418 

Variations in the narrative 450 

Variations in Scripture narratives . . . 346 

Variety of talent ; its value 202 

Veiled prophet of Khorassan 56 

Venus de Milo , . 174 

Victoria cross, The 341 

Views from a moving glacier 389 

Vineyards, Modern (body, mind, etc.) 362 

Vipers, Generation of 36 

Virgins, The wise and foolish, mar- 
ble group of 393 

Vision of Jesus concerning Jeru- 
salem 383 

Vision of the future. (German Poem) 415 

Vision of sin. (Tennyson's) 338 

Visitor from Mars 300 

Voyage of life 178 

Waiting at gates of Paradise 391 

Walking by faith. (Poem) 344 

Warnings, the Johnstown dam ..... 38 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 

(Poem) 446, 447 

Watching 589, 390 

Waterloo, Different times of begin- 
ning the battle 346, 450 

Ways, The two 159 

Weakness of a bad conscience 351 

Wealth like a fire 336 

Weather-cock. (Love) 284 

Weaver, The. (Poem) 413 

Webster on Bunker Hill 340 

Wedding garment. The 369 

Weeding out friends 176 

Whatsoever 359 

Wheat or chaff 42 

Where to find the doctor 173 

Whisper heard 500 miles 107 

Wild yeast 258 

Witnesses for Christ, A possible array 432 

Woe unto you of Love. (Chalmer's) 377 

Wolves in sheep's clothing 162 

Women. Four in Christ's genealogy 3 

Words as a test of character 236 

World for Christ, The 456 

Worshipping empty medicine bottles. 122 

Worshipping the cross, not bearing. . 121 

Wreck of the Spree 184 

Wrecks through deflected compass . . 127 

Wrought into gold. (Poem) 211 

Yoke of Christ, and yoke of sin 225 

Yoke, Meaning of 224 

Yoked together 226 

ZiNC-PATCH and the Crimean war. . . 93 

Zoroaster's forecast of a Saviour 12 



THE GOSPEL 
ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW, 



CHAPTER I. 

^ 



THE 

HUMAN 

ANCESTORS 

OF JESUS. 



1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of 
David, the son of Abraham. 

2. Abraham begat Fsaac ; and I'saac begat Ja'cob ; and 
Ja'cob begat Ju'das and his brethren ; 

3. And Ju'das begat Pha'res and Zara of Tha'mar ; and 
Pha'res begat Es'rom ; and Es'rom begat A'ram ; 

4. And A'ram begat Amin'adab ; and Amin'adab begat 
Na'asson ; and Na'Ssson begat Sal'mon ; 

5. And SaFmon begat Bo'oz of Ra'(c)hab ; and Bo'oz begat O^Ded of Ruth ; and 
O'bed begat Jes'se ; 

6. And Jes'se begat Da'vid the king ; and Da'vid the king begat Sol'omon of her 
that had been the wife of Uri'as ; 

7. And Sol'omon begat Robo'am ; and Robo'am begat Abi'a ; and Abi'5 begat 
A'sa; 

8. And A'sa begat Jos'aphat; and Jos'aphat begat Jo'ram; and Jo'ram begat Ozi'as; 



The Gospel, — ehayyi/uov (ev, well, as in well done, and ayyzloq, 7nes- 
setiger, whence our word angel). It " signifies originally a present 
given zn return for joyful news. Thus Homer makes Ulysses say to 
Eumaeus, ' Let this reward, evayye/uov, be given me for my good news ' 
(Od. xiv. 152). Later it comes to mean the good news itself — the joyful 
tidings of Messiah's kingdom." — Prof. Marvin R. Vznce7it, D.D. 

Our English word Gospel is compounded either of good and spell 
(story, news^ "the good nev/s"; or 6^^^ (which is short 
ior good) and spell, "God's story, or word." It is good 
news from God or the story about God, what He has done to bless 
and save men. 

The names in this list are the Greek forms of Hebrew names as 
ordinarily used by the people who first read the gospels, just as we 
say Leghorn for the Italian city of Livorno, or New York for the 
latin Novum Eboracum, or William for Gulielmus. 



7, 8. RoBOAM, Abia, Asa, Josaphat. — " I find the genealogy of 
my Saviour strangely checkered with four remarkable changes in 
four immediate generations. 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : 9-16 



9. And Ozi'Ss begat Jo'^thSm ; and Jo'Stham begat A'(c)haz ; and A'(c)haz begat 
Ez'eki'as ; 

10. And Ez'eki'as begat M5nas'ses; and ManSs'ses begat A'mSn; and A'm5n 
begat J6si2s ; 

11. And Josi'Ss begat Jech'oni'Ss and his brethern, about the time they were car- 
ried away to BSb'ylon. 

12. And after they were brought to Bab'ylSn, Jec^honi'as begat SSla'thiel ; and 
Saia'thiel begat Zor'obabel ; 

13. And Zor'SbSbSl begat Abi'iid; and Abi'ud begat EH'akim; and Eirakim begat 
A'zSr ; 

14. And A''z6r begat SaMoc ; and Sa'doc begat A'chim ; and A'chim begat Eli'iid ; 

15. And Eli'iid begat Elea'z5r ; and Elea'zar begat Mat'than ; and MSt'than begat 
Ja'cSb ; 

16. And Ja'cob begat Jo'seph the husband of Mary ; of whom was bom Jesus, who 
is called Christ. 



(i) Roboam begat Abia; that is, a bad father begat a bad son. 

(2) Abia begat Asa ; that is, a bad father a good son. 

(3) Asa begat Jehoshaphat; that is, a good father a ^^j""^^"^*^^^^^^ 
good son. 

(4) Josophat begat Joram ; that is, a good father a bad son. 

I see from hence that my father's piety cannot be entailed ; that is 
bad news for me. But I see, also, that actual impiety is not always 
hereditary ; that is good news for my son." 

— Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Bad Times. 



16. Of whom was born Jesus.—" What is the use of this dry 
list of hard names — this long ancestral pedigree? Vast fortunes 
often depend on tracing one's ancestry. Such for- 
tunes are even now waitmg m England. And there are p^^wge, 
other and better inheritances. For example, there sits 
upon the throne of Great Britain Queen Victoria, who was the 
daughter of the Duke of Kent. But how came she to be heir to 
England's throne ? The answer is only obtained by just such a de- 
tailed tracing of her genealogical line as is found in the genealogical 
records of our Saviour's ancestry. Thus : 

" ' Queen Victoria is the niece of William IV., who was the brother 
of George IV., who was the son of George III., who was the grand- 
son of George II., who was the son of George L, who was the cousin 
of Anne, who was the sister-in-law of William IIL, who was the son- 
in-law of James II., who was the brother of Charles II., who was the 



1:1/ MATTHEW 



17. So all the generations from Abraham to David are four- 
teen generations ; and from David uniil the carrying away into 
Babylon are fourteen generations ; and from the carrying away 
into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. 



THE 

HUMAN 

ANCESTRY 

OF JESUS. 



son of Charles I., who was the son of James I., who 
was the cousin of Elizabeth, who was the sister 
of Mary, who was the sister of Edward VI., who was the son of 

Henry VIII.'" 

Four women are named in this genealogy, — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, 
and Bathsheba. It has been noticed that two of these were of 
heathen descent, and three had some scandal connected with their 
youth. It is not so often noticed that they all h^zd^v^^ good and faith- 
ful, and that there were many more bad men than wom- . 
en. So men often find the poison in the flower and for- Eyil rather 
get the honey ; see the fly in the precious ointment and than the 
fail to perceive its perfume ; note the caterpillar and do ^^^^* 
not notice its change into the butterfly ; remember the tree in its 
wild state and forget the blessed change of fruit from the new grafts. 



17. Fourteen generations are given in each period, and the 
periods mark epochs in the history — the three great stages of devel- 
opment. The fourteen names are not all that are in the line, but only 
the principal ones, just as in travelling over a country we stop at only 
the chief places and take no note of the small towns through which 
the train passes. Every one has to learn " the art of forgetting." 

The human ancestry of Jesus includes " all classes and condi- 
tions of men.'' He is "the heir of all the ages." Everything good 
and bad that belongs to human nature were among the influences 
that affected him. He belongs to the race. Thus he can be " the 
son of man." Compare the making of England and of America from 
the union of various races, a focus of many rays. 

"For four hundred years," says Victor Hugo, "the human race 
has not made a step but what has left its plain vestige 
behind. We enter now upon great centuries. The six- 
teenth century will be known as the ag-e of painters, the 

1 -11 1 11 ? • 1 • 1- Past m the 

seventeenth will be termed the asre of writers, the eigh- „ 

° . Present, 

teenth the age of philosophers, the nineteenth the age of 

apostles and prophets. 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS I : l8-20 



i8. If Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary 
was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the 
Holy Ghost. 

19. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man^ and not willing to make her a 
pubhc example, was minded to put her away privily. 

20. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared 
unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee 
Mary thy wife : for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. 

"Td satisfy the nineteenth century it is necessary to be the 
painter of the sixteenth, the writer of the seventeenth, the philoso- 
pher of the eighteenth." 

"We inherit from thousands, from hundreds of ^^ 

Choosing 
thousands of ancestors. The blood of many families ^ ^ 

and tribes and races is mingled in our veins. .... Ancestry 

There are many potential men in every man, and which 

of them is to emerge he chooses for himself by a thousand silent 

moral preferences." — Henry Van Dyke, D.D. 

President G. Stanley Hall in a recent lecture said that, calculating 

in geometrical ratio — two parents, four grandparents, 

, - - 111 ^* t^ifl'Eii^y 

eight great grandparents — he had 20,000,000 ancestors, 

counting back to the time of William the Conqueror, . 
The best of all is that we have God himself for our an- 
cestor, as Luke says, " The son of Adam, the son of God." 

We can choose what, of all we inherit, we will follow and strengthen. 
Jesus chose the good and rejected the bad in his inheritance from 
his human past. 

Library. — "The Gospel for an Age of Doubt," Liberty, Henry 
Van Dyke, D.D.; "Heredity and Christian Problems," Amory H. 
Bradford, D.D. 

18. With Child of the Holy Ghost.— Expressing his divine 
origin as told more fully in Luke i. 35. " God said to him, Thou 
art my Son, this day have I begotten thee " (Ps. ii. 7 ; Heb. i. 5). 
Thus Jesus was both God and man, God in man. We cannot explain 
how this can be, but we can prove that it is possible and 
reasonable by a similar mystery in ourselves. For each *^ ^"* 
of us is a union of body and soul in one person. This 
is a fact, but before it became a fact it would seem contradictory and 
unthinkable, that the immaterial spirit should unite with matter, 
that the two should be distmct, and yet form one person. Every diffi- 



1:21 MATTHEW 



21. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his 
name JESUS : for he shall save his people from their sins. 



B.C. 5. 

NAZARETH. 



THE VIRGIN 
JIAKY. 



culty involved in " God dwelling in the man Christ 

Jesus," two and yet one person, sometimes spoken 

of as separate, sometimes as the same, is illustrated »j 

in our own persons, and solved there, that being 

said of the whole which is true only of the soul (as that we are im 

mortal), or again true only of the body (as that we are sick, or die). 



21. Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, "Jeho- 
vah — Salvation," the Captain who led the Lord's hosts into the 
Promised Land. And the same as Joshua the High Priest, who 
" took an active part in the re-establishment of the civil and religious 
polity of the Jews on their return from Babylon," " He appears in 
the vision of Zechariah (ch. iii.) in the court of God, under accusa- 
tion of Satan, and clad in filthy garments," as a type of sinning and 
suffering Israel. 

21. He shall Save His People from their Sins. 
Reference. See under v. 17. 

In the late Parliament of Religions, at Chicago, the represent- 
atives of the various great religions of the world presented the 

claims of their religions, their highest ideals, their best 

,. T- 1-1--T ir Parliament 

teachmgs. Ever\^ great religion has in its literature lofty „„ ,. . 

=> -^ * ° -' of Keliffions. 

thoughts, beautiful sentiments, and precepts of high mor- 
ality. Where then is the superiority of Christianity ? In the ideals, 
and in the moral teachings indeed, but most of all in the fact that 
while they are pictures more or less perfect of what men ought to 
be, they have no power to make men live up to their ideals, or prac- 
tice their ideals. Jesus not only presents the moral standard, but is 
the way by which men are brought to live up to it, the 
power that saves men from sin to holiness. " By their ^ ,. . 

£ell?ious 

fruits ye shall know them." If the speakers from each 

religion had brought a section of the country trained 

under its influences, and placed them side by side with a Christian 

community, then they would have shown that only Jesus is the power 

that can " save his people from their sins." 

Reference. See on xi. 2. 

Mr. Moody's Experience in Baltimore. — When Mr. Moody 
was in Baltimore, in the winter of 1878-9, he preached every Sab- 



6 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



1 : 22 



22. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord 
by the prophet, saying, 



bath in the penitentiary. There were about i,ooo inmates. It is 
the custom to give each one who perfectly obeys the rules, and has 
no black marks for a month, a check which is equivalent to one day 
off from his sentence. There were usually forty or fifty out of the 
thousand who would gain their check by good behavior. After Mr. 
Moody had preached there a few weeks, only one of the thousand 
failed. The good behavior increased from 40 to 999. 



22. Fulfilled — Spoken by the Prophet. — This prophecy, Hke 
many others, had a partial fulfilment in the days of Ahaz, but more 
complete in later times, which may be illustrated thus : 




The Prophecy. 



(In the time 
of Ahaz.) 



(Often in ^^ 
the history ZD 
of the 
Jews.) 



(Complete 

fulfilment 
when Jesus 




Prophecies Pointing to Christ 



23. Emmanuel, "God with us" to protect, to save, to be a 
friend. Thus John i. 14: "And the Word was made flesh, and 
dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the 



I : 23 MATTHEW 

23. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall biing forth 
a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being 
interpreted is, God with us. 

24. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel 
of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife : 

only begotten of the Father), full of grace and 
truth." 

He "tabernacled" among us, dwelt as in a tent, as the divine 
Presence dwelt in the tabernacle in the wilderness. 




The soul that rises with us, our life's star, 

Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
And Cometh from afar : 

Not in entire forgetfulness, 

And not in utter darkness. 
But trailing clouds of glory do we come 
From God, who is our home." 

— Wordsworth, IntzmaizoJis of Immortality. 



" Oh, Friend, we need not rock nor sand 
Nor storied stream of Morning Land : 
The heavens are glassed in Merimac, 
What more could Jordan render back ? " 

" We lack but open eye and ear 
To find the Orient's marvels here." 

" Flow on, sweet river, like the stream 

Of John's Apocalyptic dream : 
.This maple ridge shall Horeb be. 

Yon green-banked lake our Galilee. 

*' Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more 
For olden time and holier shore ; 
God's love and blessing then and there 
Are now and here and everywhere." 

— Whzttzer, Chapel of the Hermit. 



Library. — Dr. Van Dyke's "Gospel for an Age of Doubt," "The 
Gospel of a Person," and " The Unveiling of the Father." 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



1:25 



25. And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son : and he called 
his name JESUS. 



A CONTRAST. — Zola closes his novel, "La Bete Humaine," "With 
the description of a railway train crowded with soldiers, dragged by 
an engine whose driver has been killed, dashing at headlong speed 
into the midnight. The train is the world, we are the freight, fate 
is the track, death is the darkness, God is the engineer, — who is 
dead." — Henry Van Dyke, D.D. 



25. She brought forth her Firstborn Son. 

Date of the Birth of Christ. — It is very perplexing to many to 
find that Jesus was actually born four years before the time from which 
we count his birth. The simple reason is that no one calculated 
dates from the birth of Christ till centuries after he was born, and 
then Dionysius Exiguus, the monk who published the calculations 
in A.D. 526, made a mistake of four years. He placed the birth of 
Christ in the year of Rome (u.c.) 754. But Herod the Great, who 
slew the innocents of Bethlehem, died in April of the year of Rome 
750; so that Christ must have been born several months before, or 
not later than the last of 749. The following table will help to make 
the matter clear : 



Year of the world {Anno Mundi = a.m) 
Year of Rome {Urbe Condita = u.c.)-- - 
Year of Our Lord 

Age of Jesus 



4000 


400 T 


4002 


4003 


4004 


4005 


4006 


749 


750 


75' 


752 


75? 


754 


755 


B.C.5 


4 


^ 


2 




A.D. I 


2 


Born 














Dec. 25 


ISt. 


2d. 


3d. 


4th. 


5th. 


6th. 



4007 
756 

3 
7th. 



It should be carefully noted that the numbers are ordinal,^\.2LX\6\ng 
iox first, second, etc. 

Jesus was probably born at the very close of B.C. 5,' which would 
be only four years before our era, for in a week after the 25th of 
December, B.C. 5, it was January B.C. 4. 

Since it is impossible to rectify the dates in all the books and 
records of the world, we simply apply the true dates to the life of 
Christ. He was five years old at the close of A.D. i. 



The Roman Empire. — In order to understand the material on 
which Christianity had to work, we give the best statistics available. 
Lyman's tables give the population of the Roman empire at the time 



I : MATTHEW 9 

^ 



of Christ as 120,000,000, of which 60,000,000 were 
slaves, 40,000,000 were tributaries and freedmen, 
and only 20,000,000 were full citizens, or one-sixth 
of the population. The army numbered 400,000 and 
the navy 50,000 men. Milman gives the population 
of Rome, by the census of a.d. 48, at 5,984,000. 



B.C. 6. 

Dec. 
BETHLE- 
HEM. 

BIRTH OF JESUS. 



-^ 



Palestine.— Hon. Selah Merrill, in his " Galilee in the Time of 
Christ," thinks that the population of Palestine was about 6,000,000, 
and of Galilee 2,000,000. 



" Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be bom, 
If he's not born in thee, thy soul is all forlorn.'' 

— Johannes Schaffer. 

Library. — Mrs. Browning's poems, "The Virgin Mary to the 
Child Jesus"; Milton's poems, " Hymn to the Nativity"; Phillips 
Brooks' hymns, " O little town of Bethlehem " and " The earth has 
grown old with its burden of care "; Dr. Sears' hymn, " It came upon 
the m.idnight clear"; "The Christ Child in Art," by Henry Van 
Dyke, D.D.; " The Life of Christ in Art," by Canon F. W. Farrar, 
D.D. 

Pictures. — The Annunciation, Murillo, Raphael, Fra. Angelico, 
Botticelli, Ghiberti, Del Sarto, Rossetti, E. Burne Jones; The Im- 
maculate Conception, Murillo ; The Birth of Jesus, Murillo ; Holy 
Night (La Notte), Correggio ; The Madonna, Raphael, Murillo, Do- 
menichino, Bellini ; The Nativity, Botticelli, Tintoretto, Luini. 



Correggio in " La Notte " follows the legends of the Apocryphal 
Gospels, " The light from the Divine Child as he lies in the straw of 
the manger irradiates the happy, smiling features of the Virgin." 
" And lo ! the cave was filled with light more beautiful than the 
glittering of lamps and candles, and brighter than the light of the 
sun. — Farrar s Christ in Art. 



*' So above all mothers shone 
The Mother of the Blessed one." 



10 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS ' II : I 



CHAPTER II. 



1, Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the 
days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from 
the east to Jerusalem, 



I. Wise Men from the East. 



B.C. 4. 
Jan. and Feb. 
THE WISE 
MEN FROM 
THE EAST. 



Library. — " The Wise Men ; Who they Were," by Prof. Francis 
W. Upham ; " The Star of the Wise Men," by Arbp. Trench ; " The 
Other Wise Man," a reverent and beautiful story, by Dr. Henry Van 
Dyke. 

Legends of the Wise Men. — " Many who have read Gen. Wal- 
lace's * Ben Hur' have wondered how much of foundation he had 
for his vivid descriptions of the meeting of the three wise men 
before the birth of the Saviour. A writer in a recent number of 
the Critic has this concerning the point in question : I find in my 
Lord Lindsay's ' History of Christian Art,' p. xlvi., that the names 
of the Magi, or Wise Men, were Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, 
the first sixty, the second forty, and the third twenty years of age ; 
that they were of kingly, or at least of princely, rank ; that, starting 
from three different points and traveling apart, they met, notwith- 
standing, at the same moment at the spot where three roads joined, 
and thus proceeded together to Jerusalem. His lordship gives this as 
taken from the Second Homily on the first chapter of St. Matthew, 
in a Commentary by an uncertain author (but a Latin and an Arian, 
flourishing at the end of the sixth or the beginning of the seventh 
century), printed among the spurious works of St. Chrysostom, edit. 
Benedict 1718, tom. 6, p. xxviii, at the end of the volume." 



" Bede, indeed, is able to tell us that Melchior was an old man, 
with long white hair and a sweeping beard, and that he gave the 
gold as to a king ; that Caspar was a beardless youth, with a ruddy 
face, and that he presented the frankincense as a gift worthy of 
God ; while Balthasar was a swarthy, strong-bearded man, and gave 
the myrrh for the burial." — Geikie, 



11:2 MATTHEW 11 



2. Saying, Where is he that is bom King of the Jews ? for we 
have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. 



B.C. 4. 

Jan. and Feb. 
THE WISE 
MEN FROM 
THE EAST. 



2. The Expectation of a Deliverer, a Mes- 
siah. — " We are informed by Tacitus, by Suetonius, 
and by Josephus, that there prevailed throughout 
the entire East, at this time, an intense conviction, derived from 
ancient prophecies, that ere long a powerful monarch would arise in 
Judea, and gain dominion over the world." — Farrar. 



" Virgil, who lived a little before this, owns (fourth Eclogue) 
that a child from heaven was looked for, who should restore the 
golden age, and take away sin." — Jacobus. 



" Four hundred years before Christ, Socrates, in Greece, enter- 
tained an expectation of the near advent of some supernatural being 
to be a teacher of men. He said : ' We must wait till some one 
comes from God to instruct us how to behave toward the divinity 
and toward man.' A few years later Plato, following 
his great teacher, spoke his own similar expectation, 
declaring : * It is necessary that a lawgiver be sent from 

heaven to instruct us O, how greatly do I desire 

to see that man, and who he is.' And in his ' Republic ' Plato has 
recorded one of the clearest of the unconscious pagan delineations 
of Christ in his famous ideal description of the just man. ' Without 
doing any wrong,' says the philosopher, ' he will assume the appear- 
ance of being unjust ; yea, he shall be scourged, tortured, fettered, 
.... and after having endured all possible suffering, will be fas- 
tened to a post, and will restore again the beginning and prototype 
of righteousness.' 

" About the same time, in China, Confucius was predicting to his 
disciples : ' A new religion will sometime come from the West. It 
will pierce to the uttermost parts of China, where ships 
have never gone.' ' In the West the true saint must be 
looked for and found.' This seems a wonderful pre- 
vision of the approach of the Christian religion from the West, and 
of the coming of Christ to China from that quarter. 

" In the oldest sacred writings of the Hindus, dating back to a 
period long anterior to the advent of Christ, we find this prophecy ; 



12 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 11:2 

' Some day a religion will come from the West that shall be under 
the protection of the sword, but which shall spread by persuasion.' 
It is a fact that the Hindus interpret these words as referring to 
Christianity, advancing as it does under the armed protection of 
Great Britain, but making its conquests by the persuasion of mission- 
aries." — Rev. I. C. Jackson, Ph.D. 



*' But the clearest of all these prophecies was one by Zoroaster. 
The Nestorians say that Zoroaster was a disciple of Jeremiah, from 
whom he learned about the Messiah, and taught of him to his dis- 
ciples. As their tradition is remarkably corroborated by Abulpha- 

ragius, I will quote his language : ' Zoroaster taught the 
Zoroaster's ^^ . •- ^, • tt j , , , • , , 

Persians concernmg Christ. He declared that in the lat- 
Forecast. , • • i i j • j ^i ^ 

ter days a pure virgin should conceive, and that, as soon 

as the child was born, a star would appear, blazing, even at noon- 
day with undiminished lustre.' ' You, my sons,' exclaimed the ven- 
erable seer, ' will perceive its rising before any other nation. As 
soon as you see the star follow it wheresoever it leads you, and 
adore the mysterious child, offering your gifts to him with the pro- 
foundest humility. He is the Almighty Word which created the 
heavens.' " — Memoir of Mrs. Judith S. Grant, Missionary to Persia. 



Whence Arose this Expectation } — Without doubt from the 
Jews, who were scattered everywhere, with their Scriptures and 
their hopes, since the Babylonish captivity. Daniel himself was a 
prince, and chief among this very class of wise men. His prophecies 
were made known to them ; and the calculations by which he 
pointed to the very time when Christ should be born became, 
through the Book of Daniel, a part of their ancient literature. 

Nearly all the ancient religions " are confessions of need, and 
Christianity is the supply of the need. Their sacrifices proclaim 
man's need of reconciliation. Their stories of the gods coming 
down in the likeness of men speak of his longing for a manifestation 
of God in the flesh. The cradle and the cross are heaven's answer 
to their sad questions." — Maclaren. 



Library. — " Christ the Desire of all Nations ; or, The Unconscious 
Prophecies of Heathenism," by Arbp. Trench ; parts of Wallace's 
" Ben Hur " ; the splendid prophecy in the " Fourth Eclogue of 
Virgil." 



11:2 MATTHEW 13 



We have seen His Star in the East. — As- 



B.C. 4. 

Jan. and Feb. 

THE WISE 
MEN FROM 

THE EAST. 



tronomers have called our attention to some very- 
strange phenomena occurring about the time of 
Christ's birth, which are very interesting, and 
which may have awakened the attention of these 
Oriental magi. We learn from astronomical 
calculations that a remarkable conjunction of 
the planets of our system took place a short time before the birth 
of our Lord. In December, 1604, the great astronomer Kepler 
saw a strange sight in the heavens, — a sight which occurs only 

once (or rather, is repeated two or three times at one „ 

• ,\ • n T , . r 1 ,. • , The Star in 

period) m 800 years. It was the conjunction of the bright 
^, T • J o 1 1 .the East. 

planets Jupiter and Saturn, close together at one point 

of the heavens. Five months later, in the following May, the wonder 
was repeated in a more wonderful way : Mars joined with Jupiter 
and Saturn, a fiery trygon in the constellation Pisces. The atten- 
tion of the whole astronomical world was called to the sight ; and 
this seemed to draw notice to another sight — the appearing of a new 
star in the constellation of the Serpent. First seen in October, 1604, 
it grew more and more brilliant, till it glowed like a planet ; then 
its lustre waned, its white light turned to yellow, then to red, grew 
duller and dimmer, and finally, at the end of two years, had vanished 
altogether. These unusual occurrences led Prof. Kepler, who was 
as religious as he was scientific, to think that they might help to 
explain the strange star which the wise men saw in the 
east. The conjunction could occur but once in 800 ^ e Con- 
years ; take twice 800 years, and it brings us to within ^"^^ 
one or two years of the date of Christ's birth, the exact 
date of which is unknown. Several great astronomers, since Kepler's 
day, have made the same calculations, particularly Prof. Pritchard, 
of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Encke ; and it rests on 
assured grounds that, about the time of Christ's birth, in the month 
of May, occurred this conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, rising 
about three hours before sunrise, and therefore seen in the east. 
Suppose these wise men of Persia, the far East, seeing this wonder- 
ful sight in their clear skies, had started on their journey about the 
end of May, it would require at least seven months. The planets were 
observed to separate slowly till the end of July, when they slowly 
drew together again, and were in conjunction in September, when 
the wise men would have reached the nearer East, on the border of 
the desert. " At that time there can be no doubt that Jupiter would 



14 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : 2 

present to astronomers a very brilliant spectacle. It was then at its 
most brilliant apparition, for it was at its nearest approach both to 
the sun and the earth. The glorious spectacle continued almost 
unaltered for several days, when the planets again slowly separated, 
came to a halt, and then Jupiter again approached to a conjunction 
for the third time with Saturn, just at the time the magi may be 
supposed to have entered the holy city, in December. And to com- 
plete the fascination of the tale, if they performed the journey from 
Jerusalem to Bethlehem in the evening, as is implied, then, about 
half an hour after sunset, the two planets might be seen from Jeru- 
salem, hanging, as it were, in the meridian, and suspended over 
Bethlehem in the distance.'' — Condensed frojn Prof. Uphanis ''Wise 
Men : Who they Were." 

The Conjunction may have been the John the Baptist that her- 
alded the true " Star out of Jacob," miraculously shown over Beth- 
lehem. " The correctness of the views held by Encke and others as 
to the time and circumstances of these conjunctions, in so far as we 
know, are unquestioned by modern astronomers, including so high 
an authority as the late Astronomer Royal of England." But they 
do not think these conjunctions could properly be called a star 
within the meaning of Matthew's account. — Prof. Wm. W. Payne. 



New Stars — Temporary Stars. — In the matter of new or tem- 
porary stars, the records contain something of interest. By a new 
or temporary star is meant one that suddenly flashes out where none 
has been noticed before, and as suddenly dwindles away to a tele- 
scopic star, or disappears altogether. There is probably not another 
new or known variable star that has so wonderful a record as that 
which bears the name of Tycho Brahe. His own words best describe 
impressions at first sight, as follows : 

" Raising my eyes, as usual, during one of my walks, to the well- 
known vault of heaven, I observed with indescribable 

Xvolio 

astonishment near the zenith in Cassiopeia.^ a radiant 
Brahe'8 „ , , . , , , t 

fixed star, of a magnitude never before seen. In my 
new Star. t , i j , • j r u 

amazement I doubted the evidence of my senses. How- 
ever, to convince myself that it was no illusion, and to have the tes- 
timony of others, I summoned my assistants from the laboratory, and 
inquired of them, and of the country people that passed by, if they 
also observed the star that had thus suddenly burst forth." Going 



11:2 



MATTHEW 



15 



B.C. 4. 

Jan. and Feb. 
THE WISE 
MEN FROM 
THE EAST. 



on with the description, Tycho Brahe speaks of 
its brightness as greater than that of Sirius, Vega, 
or Jupiter. For splendor it was only comparable 
to Venus when nearest to the earth, and was seen 
by some at noonday. After a few weeks it began 
to decline, and in sixteen months became invisible 
to the naked eye (the telescope being invented 
thirty-seven years later). In waning, the star passed through 
changes of color, from white to yellow and red and then to white 
again. These phenomena interested Tycho Brahe so much that 
he wrote a large book describing the appearance of the star as 
seen by himself and others, and gave theories to account for those 
wonderful changes. It has since been thought that this star appeared 
also in 945 and 1 264. If it be a variable star with a period of about 
431 years, it would make its time of appearance about the beginning 
of the Christian Era. — Prof. Wm. W. Pay?ie. 



Seekers after God. — " In every nation there are those who have 
feared God and wrought righteousness, and have been accepted with 
him. I have met in this strange country (India), during the past 
year, wandering fakirs nominally belonging to both the Hindu and 
the Mohammedan religions, who also were real seekers after God ; 
whose spirits were chaste and humble ; who had long since eschewed 
idolatry and the harsh tenets of Islam, and were striving through 
nature to reach up to nature's God." — Geo. H. Pentecost, D.D. 



Like these wise men, seeking a King and Saviour, so alchemists 
for ages dreamed, hoped, labored, to find : 

First, " The Elixir of Life, — panacea, all-cure, — a substance 
which confers quasi-immortality upon any one who should swallow 
it, curing all sickness, assuaging all pain, and transforming hoary age 
into blooming youth ! " 

Second, " The Philosopher's Stone, having the same purifying 
and ennobling office for mineral matter that the elixir of life would 
have on animal forms. By means of this substance they could effect 
the transmutation of base metals into perfect metals." 

—Prof. R. C. Kedzie. 

Third, The Fountain of Youth, to seek which the early ex- 
plorers of America sailed over the ocean. In search of this fountain 



16 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 11:3 

3, When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusa- 
lem with him. 

Ponce de Leon set out from Porto Rico in March, 15 12, thinking 
that it was in Bimini, an imaginary island in the Bahamas. This 
expedition resulted in the discovery of Florida, 

They all searched in vain. But the Star of Bethlehem leads every 
seeker to Christ, in whom is found the true Elixir of Life, the Phil- 
osopher's Stone, and the Fountain of immortality. 



" Christ is wont to catch every man in the way of his own craft, — 
magians with a star, fishers with fish." — Ckrysostom. 



" We must look up to heaven to be guided rightly on earth, as 
ships are guided on the ocean by the stars." 



" As the morning star rises without noise, as the seed shoots up 
and the flower opens in silence, so was it with Christ, the Rose of 
Sharon, the bright and Morning Star." 



" The coming of Jesus is the centre of the world's history, as the 
star Alcyone in the Pleiades is regarded by many astronomers as the 
centre of the visible universe, around which all stars and constella- 
tions are circling in majestic procession." 



Our Stars in the East. — There are many things which be- 
come "stars in the East" to lead us to Christ: (i) The star of 
science, the knowledge of God's works. (2) The star of yearning 
for more light ; Goethe's dying cry, " More light," is the cry of the 
soul. (3) The need of forgiveness and reconciliation to God. 
(4) The need of help in trouble. (5) The hunger of the heart for 
Jove. (6) The star of experience of what God has already done for 
us. (7) The star of hope — for the redemption of the world. 



Library. — Whittier's poems, " The Star of Bethlehem's " help to 
a missionary in Persia from the flower by that name. 



11:4-11 MATTHEW 17 



B.C. 4. 

Jan. and Feb. 
THE WISE 
MEN FROM 
THE EAST. 



4. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and 
scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where 
Christ should be born, 

5. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus 
it is written by the prophet. 

6. And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the 
least among the princes of Juda : for out of thee shall come a 
Governor, that shaU rule my people Israel. 

7. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them dili- 
gently what time the star appeared. 

8. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diUgently for the 
young child ; and when ye have found him., bring me word again, that I may come 
and worship him also. 

9. When they had heard the king, they departed ; and, lo, the star, which they saw 
in the east, went before them, t.U it came and stood over where the young child was. 

10. WTaen they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 

11. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary 
his mother, and feU down, and worshipped him : and when they had opened theli 
treasures, they presented unto him gifts ; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 

4. Herod Demanded. — The wise men came naturally to the 
capital to find this wonderful person ; but found Herod and the 
leaders were bitterly opposed to the new king. But the 
very desire of Herod to destroy the new-born king was ^'^'^ 
the means of leading the wise men to the right place, Enemks. 
and confirming them in the correctness of their search. 

A cannon ball of the enemy, plunging into the ground at Sevasto- 
pol, opened a spring of water for the soldiers there. A block of 
granite, placed in the way for a stumbling-block, may become a step 
upward. The Jews' persecution of Paul was the means of his getting 
safely to Rome and preaching the gospel there. 

6. And Thou, Bethlehem ! — It is not the size of the place, 
but what is done in the place, that makes it glorious. No one cares 
to count the inhabitants of Waterloo, or measure the size of Bun- 
yan's cell, in order to learn their value. Every place becomes great, 
if at all, in the same way that Bethlehem has become immortal. 

Library. — Phillips Brooks' beautiful poem, " Oh, Little Town of 
Bethlehem ! " 

II. They Saw the Young Child with Mary His Mother. 
— "I once saw in a picture a representation of the scene of the Nativ- 
ity. The mother sat with the infant Christ in her arms ; the bend- 



18 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : 12 



12, And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, 
they departed into their own country another way. 

ing forms of the worshipping wise men were seen at the right hand ; 

the star was blazing in the sky ; the camels and beasts 
Cwreggio's ^^^^ about the tent. It was all done with exquisite skill 

and powerful delineation ; and yet I found that many other 
people besides myself turned back, as though not satisfied with the 
inspection they had given it. I stood a long time studying to find 
out what was the special and peculiar fascination of this picture, and 
discovered t^a^ every individual object in the picture was shaded as 
though the light had come from the babe in the mother's lap." — O. H. 
Tiffany. (Probably Correggio's " La Notte.") 



Myrrh to a mortal, gold to a king, frankincense to God." 

— Upham. 

" Say, shall we yield Him, in costly devotion. 
Odors of Edom and offerings divine ? 
Gems of the mountains, and pearls of the ocean, 
Myrrh from the forest, and gold from the mine ? 

" Vainly we offer each ample oblation ; 

Vainly with gifts would His favor secure : 
Richer by far is the heart's adoration ; 
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor." 

— Reginald Heber. 

" They gave to Thee 
Myrrh, frankincense, and gold ; 

But, Lord, with what shall we 
Present ourselves before Thy majesty, 
Whom Thou redeem'st when we were sold ? 
We've nothing but ourselves, and scarce that neither ; 
Vile dirt and clay. 
Yet it is soft, and may 
Impression take. 
Accept it. Lord, and say this,— Thou hadst rather 

Stamp it, and on this sordid metal make 
Thy holy image, and it shall outshine 
The beauty of the golden mine." ^Jeremy Taylor. 



II: 13 MATTHEW 19 



13. And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the 
Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take 
the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be 
thou there until I bring thee word : for Herod will seek the 
young child to destroy him. 



B.C. 4. 

Feb. 
FLIGHT 

INTO 
EGYPT. 



" ' What means this glor}^ round our feet,' 

The Magi mused, ' more bright than morn ? ' 
And voices chanted, clear and sweet, 

* To-day the Prince of Peace is born ! ' 

•-''What means that star,' the Shepherds said, 
' That brightens through the rocky glen ? ' 
And angels answering overhead, 

Sang ' Peace on earth, good-will to men.' 

" And they who do their souls no wrong, 
But keep at eve the faith of morn. 
Shall daily hear the angels' song, 

' To-day the Prince of Peace is born. ' " 

— Jajnes Russell Lowell. 

Pictures. — The Star in the East, Dore {London). The Wise Men 
and the Star, Van Der Weyden {Berlin). The Adoration of the 
Magi, Paolo Veronese, Rubens, Durer, Tintoretto, Bernardino 
Luini, Gilandajo, Sir E. Burne Jones. " In Peruzzi's picture it is 
said that the magi are portraits of Titian, Raphael, and Michael 
Angelo." The Arrival of the Magi at Bethlehem, John Lafarge 
(Church of the Incarnation^ New York). The Shrine of the Three Kings 
{Cologne Cathedral). 



13. The Angel of the Lord Appeareth. — "I believe that 
angels wait on us as truly as ever they waited on Abraham, or Jacob, 
or Moses, or Elijah, or Mary, or Jesus himself. The medieval 
painters were fond of filling the background of the Infancy with 
countless angels ; the representation, though literally false, was 
morally true. I believe that angels are encamping around them that 
fear the Lord." — George Dana Boardman, 



20 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II: 14, 1 5 

14. Wlien he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed 
into Egypt : 

15. And was there until the death of Herod : that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. 

The poem beginning — 

" Flitting, flitting, ever near Thee, 
Sitting, sitting, by Thy side. 
Like yon shadow all unweary, 
Angel beings guard and guide." 



Until I Bring Thee 'Word. — It was not necessary for Joseph 
to know the times and seasons, but only that he should commit his 
ways unto God, who did know. 

" I know not the way I am going, 
But well do I know my guide." 
Reference. Other stanzas under xiv. 22. 



14, 15. Departed into Egypt. — There is a modern but famous 

French picture called " The Repose in Egypt," engravings of which 

have found their way into our art-stores. It represents a sphinx 

with upturned face, as if still asking the great questions of life ; and 

appropriately standing on the edge of the African desert, 

The to represent the desert state of the world, without God 

®?J*^® and immortality. Darkness broods over the scene, 

Egypt. with only the far-off stars of tradition and philosophy 

shedding their dim light upon the dark desert of life. 

The artist represents Mary, with the child Jesus, in their flight from 

Herod, as reposing between the arms of the sphinx, with Joseph and 

the ass near by on an oasis. The light of the picture flows from the 

child Jesus, and makes bright the oasis and the nearer sands ; and 

rays from his face stretch faraway over the barren wastes and pene- 

rate through the darkness. So, indeed, does Jesus shine upon this 

dark world of sin and sickness and death. 



Legends of the Journey to Egypt.— It is left to apocryphal 
legends, immortalized by the genius of Italian art, to tell us how, on 
the way, the dragons came and bowed to Jesus, the lions and leopards 



II: l6, i; MATTHEW 21 



B. C. 4. 

Feb. 

OF THE 
INNOCENTS. 

BETHLEHEM. 



i6. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the 
wise men, was exceeding \\Toth, and sent forth, and slew all 
the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts there- 
of, from two years old and under, according to the time which 
he had diligently inquired of the wise men, 

17. Then was fuldlled that which was spoken by Jeremy the 
prophet, saying, 

adored Him, the roses of Jericho blossomed wherever His footsteps 
trod, the palm-trees at His command bent down to give them dates, 
the robbers were overawed by His majesty (and owed their preserva- 
tion to Dismas, one of the band, who was afterward the penitent 
thief of the crucifixion), and the journey was miraculously shortened. 



Pictures. — The Flight into Egypt, Giotto {Padua), Murillo 
{Hermitage, St. Petersburg), Titian, Paul Veronese, Van Dyck, Rem- 
brandt, Rubens, Claude, Rosetti. The Home in Egypt, Durer 
{an engraving in his The Life of the Virgin^, Edwin Long. The 
Repose in Egypt, Correggio {Parma), L. O. Merson {The Shadow of 
Isis), Titian, Van Dyck, Rembrandt. 



Library. — The engravings and descriptions are especially good 
in Henry Van Dyke's " Christ-Child in Art," and Farrar's " Life of 
Christ in Art." 

The Obelisk in Central Park, New York, once stood within sight 
of the place where, according to tradition, Jesus was when in Egypt. 



16,17. The Massacre of the Innocents.— "The fate of 
these few infants is a strange one. In their brief lives they have won 
immortal fame. They died for the Christ whom they never knev/. 
These lambs were slain for the sake of the Lamb who lived while 
they died, that by his death they might live forever. These 

' Little flowers of martyrdom, 
Roses by the whirlwind shorn,' 

head the long procession as martyrs, if not in intent, yet in fact, and, 
we may be sure, are now amongst the palm-bearing crowd, ' being 
the first-fruits to God and the Lamb.'" — Maclaren, 



22 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : l8 



i8. In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourn- 
ing, Rachel weepingyi?r her children, and would not be comforted, because they aie 
not. 

Sinful Policy is Always a Failure. — "Herod dies, but the 
young child whom he tried to slay lives. A heathen emperor of 
Rome, at the close of a persecution, erected a pillar inscribed, ' In 
honor of the emperor who extirpated the Christian superstition.' 
The pillar and the emperor are both gone, but the Gospel lives." 

— Hurlbut. 

" There is a tradition that Og, king of Bashan, lifted a huge stone 
to throw at the armies of Judea, but God made a hole in it, and it 
slipped over his head, and made him fast forever." — Wendell Phillips. 



1 8. Rachel Weeping for Her Children.— "Not the Floren- 
tine group of Niobe and her children, not the most exquisite figure 
in the literature of grief equals the pathos of the Rachel Dirge." 

—Geo. D. Boardman, D.D. 



Library.— Keble's "Christian Year," "The Holy Innocents"; 
Longfellow's poems, " Resignation," — 

" There is no flock, however watched and tended, 
But one dead lamb is there." 



Picture.— Holmaii Hunt's magnificent painting, The Triumph 

of the Innocents, " is, to my mind, the most important religious picture 

of the century." It was conceived in Palestine. " The rich bloom of 

the landscape, the garlands of heavenly human children, 

Hunt's the joyous radiance of the infant Jesus make it seem like 

Triumph a dream." " The flowers arejhosethat star the plains of 

of the Palestine in early spring, each one painted with such 

Innocents. , . , . ^ , , ^, „ -,^ 

lovK.g care that it seems to blossom forever. " Years 
of toil have been spent upon the canvas to give it reality and make it 
true at every point where truth was possible. But beyond all this 
and above it — nay, breathing through every careful line and glowing 
color — is the soul, the spirit of the picture, which irradiates it with 



II : 19-22 MATTHEW 23 



B.C. 2. 

RETURN 

TO 

NAZARETH. 



19. But when Herod was dead, behold, an ang;el of the Lord 
appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 

20. Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, 
and go into the land of Israel : for they are dead which sought 
the young child's life. 

21. And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, 
and came into the land of Israel. 

22. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father 
Herod, he was afraid to go thither : notwithstanding, being warned of God in a 
dream, he turned aside into the parts of Gahlee : 



* The light that never was on sea or land, 
The consecration and the poet's dream.' 

" The spirits of the murdered children of Bethlehem — not a great 
multitude as they are often thoughtlessly depicted, but a little band 
such as really played in that little village — have followed after Jesus 

on His flight The Holy Child looks around, and seeing the 

spirits of His playmates, welcomes them with the gladness of a divine 
sympathy. In the hand which He holds out to them are a few ears ot 
wheat, the symbol of the bread of life. These children are the first 
of His glorious band of martyrs, and as they draw near to Him the 
meaning of their martyrdom flashes upon them, and their sorrow is 
changed into joy. The last group of little ones have not yet felt His 
presence, and the pain and terror of mortality are still heavy upon 

them. Over the head of one of them the halo is just descending 

One baby saint looks down amazed to see that the scar of the sword 
has vanished from his breast. In front floats a trio of perfectly happy 
spirits, one carrying a censer and singing, the others casting down 
branches of the palm and the vine. At their feet rolls the river of 
life, breaking into golden bubbles, in which the glories of the mil- 
lennium are reflected. 

" All mystical, symbolical, visionary ! But is it not also true ? 
Think for a moment. It is the religion of Jesus that has transfigured 
martyrdom and canonized innocence. It is the religion of Jesus that 
tells us of a heaven which is full of children ; and so long as the re- 
ligion of Jesus lives it will mean help and blessing to the m.artyred 
innocents of our r2iCQ."— Henry Van Dyke, the Christ-Child in Art. 



19. An Angel (See on verse 13). 



24 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : 23 



23. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth : that it might be fulfilled 
which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. 



23. Dwelt in a City called Nazareth.— How Jesus was busy 
in the commonest employments and duties of life, was a necessary 
part of His traininsj for His great work. So it is with us. 

The coral islands grow beneath the surface, unseen. The buds 
Silent ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ bloom in spring were formed in the 
Growth. ^^^^^^> ^^^ W6^^ subjected to the long, cold winter. 
The hyacinth bulb must be kept some weeks in dark- 
ness, if we would have from it the most perfect bloom. 



His Schools and Schoolmasters.— Jesus lived at Nazareth, 
after He was two years old, through His youth and young manhood 
till He was about thirty years old. He was at home with Joseph and 
Mary. During this time it is probable that Joseph died, as no men- 
tion is made of him with Mary during the ministry of Jesus, and she 
was committed to John's care at the crucifixion. So that Jesus prob- 
ably cared for His mother during His early manhood. 

1. Jesus Lived in a Village, not a large city, but had the train- 
ing which comes from both. " It is quite noteworthy how many of 
the strongest, greatest, and most prominent men in the cities were 
brought up in the country. Yet this is not the complete picture. 
Jesus came in contact with busy life, with bad men, with unjust 
dealers in His trade. For Nazareth was a notoriously wicked town." 
And rumors of the scandal and sin of the empire entered Palestine 
close to Nazareth. "The perfection of His purity and patience was 
achieved, not easily, as behind a wide fence which shut the world 
out, but amid rumor and scandal, with every provocation to unlaw- 
ful curiosity and premature ambition." " The chief lesson which Naza- 
reth teaches us is the possibility of a pure home and a spotless youth 
in the very face of the evil world." — Gijo. Adam Smith. 

2. The Natural Scenery around Nazareth is said to be among 
"the most beautiful on the face of the earth." — Stalker. Jesus' 
preaching is full of allusions to nature. 

3. The Book of History lay open before him. The scenes of a 
large portion of the heroic deeds of His nation, the victories and the 
defeats, the struggles for freedom, and the punishments for sin were 



II : 23 MATTHEW 25 

^ 



B.C. 2 

TO 

A.D. 26. 

HOME LIFE 

AT 
NAZARETH. 



spread out before Him. As Edersheim says, 
" There could not be a national history, nor even 
romance, to compare with that by which a Jewish 
mother might hold her child entranced." 

4. The Roman Yoke was irksome and galling, 
and stirred in Him patriotic desires to deliver His 
people. 

5. The Jewish Hopes of a Redeemer, of throwing off their bond- 
age, of becoming the glorious nation promised in the prophets, were 
in the very air He breathed. 

6. His School Training was largely in the Scriptures. He 
learned three languages, (i). The Hebrew of the Scriptures, for His 
quotations were from the Hebrew, not the Greek. — Stalker. (2). 
The Aramaic, the common language of the people, and related to 
the Hebrew something as Italian is to Latin ; and (3) Greek. " He 
would have the same chance of learning Greek as a boy born in 
the Scottish Highlands has of learning English, ' Galilee of the 
Gentiles ' being then full of Greek-speaking inhabitants." — Stalker. 

7. His Home Training must have been in a most spiritual 
atmosphere, full of love and piety and good morals. He was a good 
son and obedient to His parents. 

8. The Training in Travel.— The journeys of Jesus, year by 
year, to Jerusalem were an education whose benefits can scarcely be 
estimated. 

9. His Business Training, by Daily Labor.— Jesus learned the 
trade of a carpenter from His father (Matt. xiii. 55; Mark vi. 1-3). 
The human race must work in some way ; and it was well that their 
Saviour should have trod the way of daily toil. In that school may 
be learned nearly all the virtues, when the smallest acts are done 
with the highest motives. The spiritual motive transfigures the 
lowliest toil. 

Library. Geo. Adam Smith's "Historical Geography of Holy 
Land," pp. 432-435. Walter Beasant's "The City and the Land," 
p. 114. 

The Carpenter's Shop. — Jesus worked in a carpenter shop dur- 
ing his youth. The humblest service done from the highest motives, 



26 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS II : 23 

was noble and worthy. The home and the carpenter shop were "the 
seed plot of the manly virtues." 

" Plucked by his hand, the meanest weed that grows 
Towers to the lily, reddens to the rose." — Wm. Watson. 



Angels in the Kitchen. — " In one of Murillo's pictures in the 
Louvre, he shows us the interior of a convent kitchen ; but doing 
the work there are not mortals in old dresses, but beautiful, white- 
winged angels. One serenely puts the kettle on the fire to boil, and 
one is lifting up a pail of water with heavenly grace, and one is at 
the kitchen dresser reaching up for plates; and I believe there is a 
little cherub running about and getting in the way, trying to help. 
.... All are so busy, and working with such a will, and so refin- 
ing the work as they do it that somehow you forget that pans are 
pans, and pots are pots, and only think of the angels, and how very 
natural and beautiful kitchen work is, — just what the angels would 
do, of course." — William C. Gannett. 



Library. — William C. Gannett's *' Blessed be Drudgery.' 



Pictures. — The Carpenter s Shop, Sir J. E. Millais. T/ie Carpen-- 
ter's Shop at Nazareth, Hoffmann. The Shadow of Death, Holman 
Hunt. Christ among the Doctors^ and Finding of Christ in the 
Temple, Holman Hunt. The Boy Jesus in the Temple, Hoffmann 
{Dresden). 



'Oh ! say not, dream not, heavenly notes 

To childish ears are vain. 
That the young mind at random floats, 

And cannot reach the strain. 



"Was not our Lord a little child 
Taught by degrees to pray. 
By father dear and mother mild 
Instructed day by day ? " 



11:23 



MATTHEW 



27 



•i* 



B.C. 2 

TO 

A.D. 26. 

HOME LIFE 

AT 
NAZARETH. 



23. He Shall be Called a Nazarene. — 
Nazareth probably obtained its name from the 
Hebrew Netser, a shoot, a branch, from its small 
beginnings {Kezl). Jesus was the Netser, the shoot, 
the branch of (Isaiah xi. i). He was an insignifi- 
cant sprout from the roots or stump of David's 
royal house, which should grow greater than the 
original tree. The Jewish nation was cut down by the exile, so as to 
leave but a stump. Assyria was cut down like a fir tree, from whose 
roots no new shoots spring. Judah was cut down like an 

oak, from whose stump spring new shoots which often 

1 1 1- • • ? T-u J Shoot, 

grow larger than the origmal tree. The trees around 

my study are, most of them, this second growth, the results of this 

new sprouting. Jesus was a Netser, a Nazarene, the new shoot through 

whom the kingdom of God became far greater and more glorious 

than the original kingdom. 



One Incident of these twenty-eight years at Nazareth is recorded 
by Luke ii. 40-50. Jesus twelve years old. a.d. 7 or 8. 



28 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



III: 1,2 



CHAPTER III. 



1. In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the 
wilderness of. Judea, 

2. And saying, Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand. 

Pictures. — John the Baptist Preaching in the 
Wilderness, Titian {Venice), Dore {London). Youth- 
ful John the Baptist, Del Sarto,- Perrault. 



Summer of 
A.D. 26. 

JOHN THE 
BAPTIST. 

WILDERNESS 
OF JUDEA. 



2. Repent Ye. — MeravoeZre, from ii^ra, after, with, and wew, \.o per- 
ceive, to think. " In this compound the preposition combines the 
two meanings of time and change, which may be denoted by after 
and differejit, so that the whole compound means to thiiik differ- 
ently after. Repentance is, therefore, an after thought, different from 
the former thought ; then a change of niind which issues in regret, 
and in a change of conduct." — Prof. M. R. Vincent, in Word-Studies. 



A Heart Change Needed.— The colored man who took off the 
hands of his clock and brought them to the clockmaker to be regu- 
lated, knew as little about clocks as those people do about Christian- 
ity who think it can be regulated by mere forms or external rules. 
There is a story of an old Spartan, who, after vainly trying to make 
a dead man stand upright, said : " It wants something inside." 

Reference. See on iv. 17. 



The Power of Repenting.—" The fact that the brain is a 
double organ— that there are really two brains, only one 
Our Double ^f which is used— .... points clearly to the hypoth- 
esis that the brain is not an ^olian harp helplessly 
vibrating under external impulses, but a double organ with two sets 
of keys, and the mind is like the player, who can use either one of 
them to make music. And this corresponds closely with our own 
' ^^"^^ ^^ ^^^ process. For we are conscious not only of 
passive thoughts and feelings evoked within us byexter- 
the Tunc "^^ causes, but also of thoughts and feelings voluntarily 
he Plays, directed and combined, woven together in creative har- 
monies, and moving under the guidance of chosen ideals 



i 



Ill : 3 MATTHEW 29 



3. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, 
saying, The voice of one ciying in the wilderness, Prepare ye 
the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 

toward a symphonic completeness." — H. Van 
Dyke, Gospel for an Age of Doubt, p. 221. 
Reference. See on iv. 17. 



Summer of 
A.©. 26. 

JOHN THE 
BAPTIST. 

WILDERNESS 
OF JTJDEA. 



Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.— 
Repentance and forsaking of sin are necessary before God can give 
the blessings of salvation and the fruits of the Spirit ; as the warm 
spring sun must come and thaw the ground and melt the snow 
before the flowers and fruits can bless the earth. It is useless to 
sow even the best of seed on snow banks and frozen soil. The 
springtime is an invitation to sow the good seed. It makes it pos- 
sible to sow in hope. 

" Stanley makes a note of the fact that while traveling in the 
Dark Forest in Africa he did not see many snakes. But when he 
stopped for a few weeks' rest, he determined to clear up 
a plot of land and plant it in corn. He says that when <^oncealed 
they commenced to clear the land they found snakes 
everywhere. Snakes under the logs, rocks, leaves, up in the bushes, 
and down in the earth. The land was cleared, the snakes killed, the 
corn planted, and in a few weeks they had fine roasting ears." In 
human nature there are many serpents of evil often hidden from 
consciousness. The preaching of repentance reveals them, men slay 
them, and there may grow up from the same soil a bounteous harvest 
of the fruits of the Spirit. 



3. Prepare ye the Way of the Lord.— The breaking up of 
wild ground for cultivation, removing rocks and roots of trees and 
thorns and weeds, plowing the ground, are all necessary as prepara- 
tions for sowing the good seed, without which there can be no harvest. 



The Need of a John the Baptist. — " Sometimes, nay, often, 
a church or a nation lies like a ship becalmed on the tropic sea. The 
air around it is heavy with pestilence and with death. The heat and 
the stagnation bring forth a brood of contemptible vices. Then some 
rushing storm-centre comes sweeping across the waters, and gathers 



30 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 3 

into its bosom all the thunders of the lurid sky, lashes into fury the 
lazy elements, torments the putrescent waves into spray 
Storm ^^^ foam, whirls the ship along with the noise of water- 
ing up gpQ^^g^ kindles electric fire upon its masts, making the 
ship's crew pale their features with fear — drunken, or 
slumbering, or careless as they are. And even such a 
storm-centre of moral force was St. John the Baptist. For a brief 
time he cleared the air of a religion heavy with imposture, but it was 
too late. A few pure souls prepared by him had listened in the hush 
which followed to the voice of Christ ; but the heavy pall of formal- 
ism and insincerity fell again upon the nation, fold by fold, and 
when the hurricane burst upon- it once more, it was not the purify- 
ing storm of spiritual regeneration, it was the tornado of final desti- 
nation." — F. W. Farrar. 

The Need of Revivals. — There is need of reformations and 
revivals, political and religious, which stir the community to its very 
depths, and throughout its whole extent. The ordinary means of 
grace are most important, but there is also need of other and sudden 
powers to make men see more clearly both their needs and their 
hopes, and to bring them to action. 

Prof. E. W. Scripture, of Yale, in his book of psychological experi- 
ments, " Thinking, Feeling, Doing," proves that in order to realize 
feelings, as of hot and cold, there needs to be a sudden change. In 
holding a spoon on the flame of a lamp, "when the heat vj2is gradu- 
ally increased, it was scarcely noticed, but when suddenly 

Professor increased it was clear at once." Although a frog jumps 

Scripture's j-g^jjjjy when put in warm water, yet a frog can be boiled 
^P^"' without a movement if the water is heated slowly enough. 
In one experiment the water was heated at the rate of 
0.002C (in'ow of a degree Fahrenheit) per second ; the frog never 
moved, and at the end of two and a half hours was found dead. He 
had evidently been boiled without noticing it. " From psycholog- 
ical writers we have heard it repeated ad natiscam that there is no 
consciousness without change. These facts illustrate the necessity 
of sudden impulses, of great revivals, reformations, political excite- 
ments, unexpected results, to awaken a community to its needs or its 
dangers." 

Tests of Revivals. — In studying the value of revival work, such 
as Mr. Moody's, wrong tests are often applied. It is not fair to judge 



Ill : 3 MATTHEW 31 



Summer of 
A.D. 26. 

JOHN THE 
BAPTIST. 

WILDERNESS 
OF JUDEA. 



of the value of a shower by the amount of water 
that remains visible on the surface ; nor of the 
value of an enrichment of the soil by looking for 
a harvest the next morning. It leads to great 
errors if we test a farm by the weeds, and not 

by the harvests. A desert has fewer weeds than a 4* ^ 

garden. 

Prof. Amos R. Wells, of the Golden Rule, has written a modern 
fable concerning the animals wishing to choose a king. The Lion 
roared the loudest, and thought he should be chosen ; the Lark 
sang the sweetest; the Eagle soared the highest; the Kangaroo 
leaped the farthest. The latter insisted that leaping should be the 
test and he be the king. Wrong tests, partial tests, are unsafe guides. 
For every great good there is need of many and varied tests. 

These facts illustrate the need of sudden impulses, revivals, refor- 
mations, political overturnings, unexpected results, to awaken the 
cornmunity to its needs and its wrongs. John the Baptist produced 
such a sudden impulse and change. 

Reference. Carlyle's " History of Frederick the Great," on the 
Value of the Reformation. 

Preparing the Way of the Lord. — " In the mountain regions, 
the washing of the hillsides by the heavy winter rains destroys, each 
year, a large portion of the best laid roads. In the desert regions 
the shifting sands, and in the more fertile regions the abundant 
growth of weeds and shrubbery, make Eastern roads well-nigh im- 
passable, unless care is exercised for their frequent or special clear- 
ing. In many parts of the East the ancient roads were prepared or 
repaired only at the special call of the king, for his special service 
on an exceptional occasion." — H. C. Trumbull, D.D. 



On the ist of April, i886, the boy Emperor of China set out on his 

first journey beyond the confines of Peking, to visit the Eastern 

tombs, fifteen miles awa}'', to worship his imperial ancestors. " For 

weeks before the eventful day, hundreds of men had 

been at work preparing a road for His Majesty to travel ; ^^^ ^^^ 

repairing the ancient stone road between Peking and ""P^'"® 

the city of Tungchou, fifteen miles distant, throwing up 

X.' J ^t- . 1- 1 • J- J Emperor of 

a highway across the country, when his course diverged 

from this road ; building bridges where rivers were to be 

crossed, and putting up eating halls, huge structures of matting at 



32 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 3 

which the Emperor and his followers could refresh themselves with 
a cup of tea and whatsoever more substantial they required." 

—Mrs. H. P. Beach, 



" On going from Cairo to the pyramids, over an exceptionally good 
road, the traveler will not fail to be told that it was built for the 
Prince of Wales, or for the Empress Eugenie, or for the Khedive 
himself, or even, rarely, for Napoleon the Great." — Prof. Isaac Hall. 



" Formerly the soft sand of the streets of Cairo gave back no 

sound of chariot-wheel, hoof, or footstep; now the paved roadway 

of the Muski is a din worthy of Regent Street or Brcfadway. It has 

lost in dignity and quiet, but much gain is made, in 

Prepared some respects, by the improvements of Ismail Pasha. 

for the Instead of donkeying to the pyramids, or perching on a 

Prince of back-breaking camel, you ride in an open barouche to 



the very foot of the Great Pyramid. It is a delicious 
drive, eleven miles on a raised causeway, under the shady acacia 
trees, sacred in our eyes to poetry and song. The highway was built 
for the Prince of Wales, according to an immemorial compliment in 
the East, which orders a new road made for a guest the king delights 
to honor. Verily, Ismail Pasha builded better than he knew, when 
he ordered this for the Prince of Wales. His it is now." 

— Mrs. Gen. Lew Wallace. 



Another method of preparing the way is mentioned by Dr. Trum- 
bull. In his " Studies in Oriental Social Life," he speaks of the nar- 
row streets of Alexandria packed with half-naked cripples, blind 
beggars, veiled women, men in bright-colored garments, 

in\le*xan- children in none, donkeys trotting through the crowd, 
dria. when, suddenly, out of all this confusion, a sharp, clear 
voice was heard, " Take care ; to thy right, to thy left," 
from a lithe-limbed young Egyptian, gayly dressed, with his loins 
girded, coming on the run, swinging a light staff in his hand, and 
repeating his cries to the throng in the street to make way for those 
who were to follow. Close behind him came an open carriage, 
drawn by a span of showy horses, containing an officer of the gov- 
ernment. Thus John came to bid men, and customs, and prejudices, 
and useless forms, and sins of all kinds to stand aside and let the 
Prince of Peace come to their hearts and to their nation. 



111:3 MATTHEW 33 

Temperance Preparingthe Way.— Dr. Justin 
Edwards says that the great revival of 1825-28 was 
preceded by a temperance revival, and that, of 300 
towns through which the temperance reform 
swept, in 275 there followed a revival of religion. 
The revival of 1865 in Dr. Cuyler's church, in 
Brooklyn, began in the same way. Repenting of 
this sin of intemperance prepared the way for Christ. The same 
truth may be illustrated (i) by the clearing away the brush and wood 
in a new country, in order that crops may be planted ; (2) by the 
cleansing of the house, in order to receive friends. 



Stem 1)1 er q/ 

A.B. 26. 

JOHN THE 

BAPTIST. 

WILDERNESS 
OF JUDEA. 



How TO Prepare the Way.— The voice comes to us, " Prepare ye 
the way of the Lord." (i) Fill up the valleys, the sins of omission, — 
defects of prayer, of faith, of love, of work. (2) Bring down the moun- 
tains of pride, sin, selfishness, unbelief, worldliness. (3) Straighten 
out all crooked places, crooked dealings with others, crooked ways 
of sin, settle difficulties, confess sins. (4) Smooth the rough places, 
— the harshness of temper and manner, the lack of courtesy, the 
coldness, the fault-finding, which are the little foxes that spoil the 
vines, the flies in the precious ointment, the spots in our feasts of 
charity that mar the beauty of holiness. 



Wider Applications.—" To the Oriental mind a road, a way, the 
king's highway, includes primarily the idea of a kingdom ; of a king- 
dom planned and a kingdom controlled ; again, it includes the idea 
of a personal sovereign ; of a sovereign whose plan is back of that 
highway and whose purpose is before it ; yet, again, it includes the 
idea of the king's commandment, in the building of that road and in 
the keeping of it in repair ; of a sure course to one's destination by 
means of that road ; of safety while on that road ; of duties which 
grow out of being on the line of that road ; of the duty of watching 
for the king's coming and of making the road ready for his passage ; 
of the duty of following in the train and in the service of the king 
when he is moving along that road. And this covers everything 
that we understand by the way of duty, the way of privilege, the way 
of safety in our moral and spiritual life course." 

— H. C. Trumbull, in Sunday-School Times. 



34 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 4 



4, And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about 
his loins ; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. 

4. His Meat was Locusts. — These locusts resemble our grass- 
hoppers. " The Piutes (Indians) have been busy for some time har- 
vesting grasshoppers. The savages get together in the vicinity of a 

lake or pond and form a ring around it. When every- 
Eating Lo- , . . ^ , , , ^ , . , , , . 

custs and thmg is ready they beat tom-toms and sticks and begin 

Grasshop- to close in. The hoppers, startled by the noises, jump 
pers by toward the water, and finally fly into it. When the In- 
dians have the surface of the pond well covered, they 
dip the insects out in baskets, and, going to the shore, spread them 
out to dry. After the hoppers are well dried the savages roll them 
gently, so as to break off the wings and legs, and the bodies are then 
thrown into a pile by themselves. At the close of the day's work 
the hoppers, dried and assorted, are stored away in caches for win- 
ter. The Indians of the coast very highly prize the dishes made 
from these insects. They make soup of them first, and finally, when 
they will no more answer for soup, they are eaten." 

— Western Correspondent of Boston Journal. 



" Prof. C. V. Riley, the Government entomologist, was found break- 
fasting on fried cicada, or seventeen-year locusts, the other morning. 
They resemble fried oysters. ' I spent an hour last night,' said the 
host, 'gathering them, and they were very beautiful when fresh. I 
took them just as the pupa began to break. They were creamy- 
white and plump, and looked good enough to eat raw, but I didn't 
venture. I think these should have been stewed instead of fried, — 
stewed in milk. I presume they would be nearly as good as grass- 
hoppers.' * Do you eat grasshoppers } ' ' Certainly. I once ate 
nothing else for two days, and I found them delicious when prop- 
erly cooked.' " — Boston Journal. 



Locusts are so abundant in this region that, according to the Lon- 
don Daily News, in 1 881, 250 tons of locusts were buried in Cyprus, 
each ton numbering over 90,000,000 of these pests. 

Library. — David A. Lyle's " Locusts as Food for Man'' in PopU' 
lar Science Monthly, XXIII., pp. 531-535. 



Ill : s, 6 MATTHEW 35 



5. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all 
the region round about Jordan, 

6. And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. 



Summer of 
A.I>. 26. 

JOHX THE 
BAPTIST. 

WILDERXZSS 
OP JUDEA. 



And Wild Honey; — "For honey, so far I 

know, no country in the world, unless it be Greece, "^ *5' 

can rival the hilly parts of Syria ; and the wild 
bees, of the same species as those which are hived, find secure 
shelter for any number of swarms in the innumerable 
fissures and clefts of the limestone rock which every- p ^jgsu^e 
where flank the valley. The flora of Palestine is pre- 
eminently rich in honey-producing plants. The crocuses, which in 
Januar}'- carpet the ground, are followed by an uninterrupted succes- 
sion of anemones, ranunculuses, thymes, salvias, borages, and other 
bee-feeding blossoms throughout the greater part of the year. Many 
Arabs, particularly in the wilderness of Judea, obtain their subsist- 
ence by bee-hunting, bringing into Jerusalem jars of that wild honey 
on which John the Baptist fed in the wilderness, and which Jona- 
than had, long before, unwillingly tasted when the honeycomb had 
dropped on the ground from the hollow tree in which it was sus- 
pended. As one sees the busy multitudes of bees on the rocky hill- 
sides, even to-day, we recall the promise, ' With honey out of the 
.rock should I have satisfied thee.' Besides these wild bees, every 
house in the village possesses its piled beehives, very different from 
our own. They are simply large tubes of sun-dried mud, about nine 
inches in diameter and four feet long, closed with mud at each end, 
with a small aperture in the centre, too small to admit mice or liz- 
ards or any other enemies to the inhabitants. These tubes are laid 
in rows horizontally and piled in a pyramid. I counted one of these 
colonies, consisting of seventy-eight tubes, each a distinct hive." 

— Geikie, zn Sunday-School Times^ 



6. Baptized of Him. — On every great question the influential 
workers take an open and decisive stand. Everj'body knows on 
which side they stand. Men do not enlist in a war secretly, as if 
ashamed of their colors. Their banners, their uniform, their asso- 
ciations, all declare where they stand. None are so weak and useless 
as those who sit on the fence. Those on the border between tvv'o 
warring countries suffer most of all. 



36 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : J 



7. T[ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, 
he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the 
wrath to come ? 

Confessing their Sins. — One day during the war, a soldier in one 
of the forts around Washington was singing that sweet hymn : 

" I was a wandering sheep, 
I was a J ^.^ ^^^ j^^g ^j^g f qJ^ 

Wandering 

Sheep. T ^^^ '^C)t love my Father's voice, 

I would not be controlled." 

Sergeant Langdale (of whom an officer bore this testimony to me, 
that he was the best Christian in the army), hearing him, said, 
" Friend, sing it in the present tense." And he sang : 

*• I am a wandering sheep, 
I do not love the fold, 
I do not love my Father's voice, 
I will not be controlled." 

It was the truth, and it made a deep impression. 



Sin more than a Losing Game. — " Confession of sin is not a 
mere abajidonmeJit of sin as a losing game. That was a shrewd, but 
not very flattering estimate, found on record in the private thoughts 
of an old divine: 'I believe,' he says, 'that it will be shown that 
the repentance of most men is not so much sorrow for sin as sin, or 
real hatred of it, as sullen sorrow that they are not allowed to sin.' " 

— C. S. Robinson. 

7. Generation of Vipers. — Progeny, brood of vipers. " The most 
venomous and dangerous of the many poisonous snakes of Syria. It 
is of small size, gives no warning rattle, and closely resembles the 
gray rocks where it lives. It darts upon its victim unwares. This 
treacherous habit of the viper, and the deadly poison of its bite gave 
point to the comparison." — Dr. E. W. Rice. 

" In all the waste places of the East, among the jagged rocks, on 

the sands, and especially among the ruins of old inhab- 

^th^^E^st " ^^^^ places, among the thorns that grow over the stones, 

the asp and the adder are to be looked out for. A place 

infested with adders is as deadly and dangerous as can be, and as 



Ill : 7 MATTHEW 37 



much shunned by the Orientals as any place can 
be. Many a ruin has to lie unexplored because the 
native workmen are afraid — and justly so — of the 
asps." — Prof. Isaac H. Hall, zn Sunday-School Times, 



AoD. 26. 

WORK OF 
JOHN THE 
BAPTIST. 

JESUS AT 
NAZARETH. 



Africans and the Mirror. — This was not 
denunciation, but warning. It was the cry of 
love. Its object was to keep them from suffering the wrath. The 
" vipers " were a mirror held up before them that they might realize 
what they really were. 

I once saw a father take his little boy, who was in a passion, and 
hold him up before a mirror so that he might see how distorted his 
face was. 

Dr. Livingstone came across tribes in the interior of Africa who 
had never seen a looking-glass, or any of its substitutes. One time, 
when some of them were looking at their own faces in his mirror, 
and seeing for the first time how they looked, he heard them exclaim- 
ing about themselves, " How ugly I look ! " " What a queer fellow ! " 
" What a homely nose ! " So we are astonished when we see our 
hearts for the first time in the mirror of God's law, and in the light 
of his Holy Spirit. 

Reference. See under xxvi. 75. 



Flee from the Wrath to Come. — The first need of a soul and 
of the nation is a deep sense of sin and guilt, and of danger flowing 
from them, with also a way and a hope of a better life. 

Fear, not terror, or acute fright, is essential to every soul, and is 
universal. It may be in its subtle forms, as fear of God, fear of fail- 
ure, of dishonor, but every one does fear, and should fear. " We 
fear God better because we have feared thunder." " Aris- 
totle's conception of education as learning to fear in due ^ ^^^^^ ^ 
proportion those things worthy of being feared, would 
not serve badly as a definition also of courage." Fear is the 
rudimentary organ on the full development and subsequent reduc- 
tion of w^hich many of the best things in the soul are dependent." 
" A childhood too happy and careless and fearless is a calamity so 
great that prayer against it might stand in the old English service 
book beside the petition that our children be not poltroons." " Bad, 
and even dangerous as its grosser forms are, there is no possible way 



38 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III : 8-10 



8. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance : 

g. And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father : for I 
say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 

10. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees ; therefore every tree 
which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 

of developing the higher without them." — Pres. G. Stanley Hall, i?i 
A Study of Fears, pp. 242-244. 



Warning. — It is love that warns, and cruelty that fails to warn, 
and cries Peace, Peace, when there is no peace. 

It is said that when the great dam was breaking which brought 
such terrible disaster to Johnstown, Pa., a messenger was sent in 
great haste to warn the city of their danger, but that entering a 
saloon he became drunk, and failed to give the warning. And the 
disaster came. 



8. Repentance. See on iii. 2 and iv. 17. 



9. Abraham to Our Father. See on i. 7-17. 

Of these Stones to raise up Children.— Compare Mark 
Antony's speech in Julius Caesar, — 

" There were an Antony 
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue 
In every wound of Caesar, that should move 
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny." 



10. The Axe is laid unto the Root of the Trees " In the 
East with a significance which we hardly understand in the West. 
It is not merely because the tree cumbers the ground in a physical 
sense ; for even shade-trees — trees of any sort — are greatly to be 
desired throughout the Holy Land. But the fruit-trees are all taxed ; 
and if unfruitful they are a heavy incumbrance. If a 

^W ^^ tree bears no fruit, it brings its proprietor in debt, and 

that to the most merciless of creditors, a tax-farmer. 

Some four years ago, when the taxes were heavy and the olive 

product light, multitudes of olive-trees were cut down on the spurs 

of Lebanon. It was cutting off the owners' means of support in the 



Ill: II MATTHEW 39 



II. I indeed baptize you with water unto Tepentance : but he 
that Cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not 
worthy to bear ; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and 
with fire. 



A.D. 26. 

WOEK OF 
JOHN THE 
BAPTIST. 

JESUS AT 
NAZAKETH. 



future ; but that was still in the future, and uncer- t" 

tain. In the immediate present, all the proprietor 

could see was cruelty, oppression, and taxes. Future starvation was 

not a heavier burden than present hunger with debt as a load above 

it." — Sunday-School Times. 

The Jewish church was this tree. The axe was laid at its root 
The forces were already in operation which led to the destruction 
of the Jewish nation forty-four years later. 



Library. — Josephus' "Jewish Wars," and Charlotte Elizabeth's 
" Judea Capta," give vivid pictures of these times, and show how 
their own bad life was ruining the nation, and repentance would 
have saved it. It was equally true of the individual. 



Bringeth not forth Good Fruit is Hewn Down. 



The Grafted Apple-tree. — " Some years ago, an apple-tree 
growing quite near my door produced such small, mean fruit, that my 
wife, one day, declared it utterly worthless, and advised me to cut it 
down. So, getting my axe, I prepared to strike a heavy blow, when 
swift as lightning through my brain came this thought, ' Let it stand., 
and graft into its worthless trunk a scion from some tree which 
bears good fruit.' ' I will,' I said, and carrying back my axe, returned 
with grafting-wax and a shoot, which I soon had firmly grafted into 
the useless tree. And, my friends, after a few seasons, that same 
tree bears the largest, fairest fruit that grows upon my farm to-day ; 
and all because of that little shoot from the better tree, which, infus- 
ing its life and qualities into the old trunk, brought its fruit up to a 
higher standard." — Anon. The Jews, as a nation, were not willing 
to receive the scion that would have saved them. 



II. Baptize You with the Holy Ghost. — The Holy Spirit 
had been working in the hearts of men before this time. The chief 
difference between then and now lay in the abundance and power 



40 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS III: II 

with which the Holy Spirit is now given, thus characterizing the 
gospel times as the dispensation of the Spirit. Formerly the gift 
was like the dew, now it is like the rain ; formerly like the early 
dawning light, nor like the full splendor and power of the day ; for- 
merly like the first early fruits, now like an abundant harvest. 



William Arthur, in his " Tongue of Fire," compares these different 
degrees to water, which, when cold, is solid, brittle ice : " gently 
warmed, it flows ; further heated, it mounts to the sky " ; and he 
might have added that, with still greater heat, it becomes steam, — 
one of the greatest working forces known. 



So, " an organ filled with the ordinary degree of air which exists 

everywhere is dumb. Throw in, not another air, but an un- 

o" an steady current of the same air, and sweet but imperfect 

and uncertain notes immediately respond to the player's 

touch ; increase the current to a full supply, and every pipe swells 

with music." 

Another illustration is found in oxygen, which in air is free and 
life-giving; in the form of ozone, has power to bring 
rapid decay in the autumn leaves, and in the form of fire 
has its mightiest effects in light and heat, unknown to other forms. 



We are but organs mute, till a master touches the keys — 
Verily, vessels of earth into which God poureth the wine ; 

Harps are we, silent harps that have hung in the willow-trees, 
Dumb till our heartstrings swell and break with a pulse divine." 



Mr. Moody's Religious Experiences. — "I can myself go back 
almost twelve years and remember two holy women who used to 
come to my meetings. It was delightful to see them there. When 
I began to preach I could tell by the expression of their faces that 
they were praying for me. At the close of the Sabbath evening 
meetings they would say to me, ' We have been praying for you.' I 
said, ' Why don't you pray for the people ? ' They answered, ' Vozi 
need the power.' '/need power .^' I said to myself, 'Why, I thought 
I had power.' I had a large Sabbath-school and the largest congre- 
gation in Chicago. There were some conversions at the time. I 
was, in a sense, satisfied. But, right along these two godly women 



Ill: II MATTHEW 41 



A.D. 26. 

WORK OF 

JOHN THE 

BAPTIST. 

JESUS AT 
NAZARETH. 



kept praying for me, and their earnest talk about 
•anointing for special service' set me thinking. 
I asked them to come and talk with me, and we 
got down on our knees. They poured out their 
hearts that I might receive an anointing from 
the Holy Spirit, and there came a great Inmger 
into my soul. I did not know what it was. I 
began to cry as I never did before. The hunger increased. I was 
crying all the time that God would fill me with his Spirit. Well, 
one day, in the city of New York — oh, what a day ! I cannot de- 
scribe it ; I seldom refer to it ; it is almost too sacred an experience 
to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for four- 
teen years. I can only say God then revealed himself to me, and I 
had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his 
hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different ; 
I did not present any new truths ; and yet hundreds were converted. 
I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed 
experience if you would give me all Glasgow, — it would be as the 

small dust of the balance." 

— Dwight L. Moody, in address at Glasgow. 



Rooms To Let with Power. — Mrs. Pearsall Smith not long ago 
said, in an address, that she often saw in Philadelphia the sign, 
" Rooms To Let with Power." Such God offers us. All the places 
in which we are to work, all our duties, God gives us with power to 
make them effective, but we must accept and use the power that is 
given us. 

And with Fire. — There is no better visible symbol of the Holy 
Spirit than fire. Fire, shining in light, is mysterious in 
nature, ineffably bright and glorious, everywhere pres- ^ . , 
ent, swift-winged, undefiled, and undefilable. Light is the 
source of life, of beauty, of manifested reality, of warmth, comfort, 
and joy, of health, and of power. It destroys all darkness. Without 
it the world would be but a mass of coldness and death. Fire puri- 
fies, fire subdues with resistless energy. 



Christians were like the wires, the Holy Spirit like the electric 
current flowing through the wires, and enabling them to give light 
or carry sound. 



42 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 111:12-14 



12. Whose fan ts in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather 
his wheat into the garner ; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. 

13. T[ Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of 
him. 

14. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest 
thou to me ? 

12. Thoroughly purge Siatcadaptei, from ^ta, through, throughly, 
z'.e., thoroughly, and Kadalpu, to cleanse, to prune. He cleanses the 
wheat from one end of the floor through to the other. 



Wheat — Chaff. — " I hav.e read of a king, who, having no issue 
to succeed him, espying one day a well-favored youth, took him to 
court and committed him to tutors to instruct him, providmg by his 

will that if he proved fit for government he should be 
'*'^®J^"^*®'^ crowned king; if not, he should be bound in chains and 

made a galley-slave. Now, when he grew to years, the 
king's executors, perceiving that he had sadly neglected those means 
and opportunities whereby he might have been fit for State govern- 
ment, called him before them and declared the king's will and pleas- 
ure concerning him, which was accordingly performed, for they 

caused him to be fettered and committed to the galleys 

Thus he is a slave who might have been a king." — Rev, Thomas 
Brooks^ Apples of Gold for Young Men and Women. 



Library.— Lowell's "The Present Crisis"; 

" Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, 
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side ; 
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or 

blight. 
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right; 
And the choice goes by forever, 'twixt that darkness and that 
light." 

"A Study of Fears," by Pres. G. Stanley Hall, Clark University, 
especially chapter 26, embodying his conclusions. 



Pictures. — The Baptism of Jesus, Murillo (.Seville), Dor^ {London), 
Giotto {Padua), Verrochio. 



Ill: 15-17 MATTHEW 43 



A. ». 27. 

January. 

BAPTISM OF 

JESUS. 



15. And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so 
now : for thus it becometh vis to fulfil aU righteousness. Then 
he suffered him. 

16. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway 
out of the water : and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, 
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and light- 
ing upon him : 

17. And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am 
well pleased. 

13-15. Baptized of Him: to Fulfil all Righteousness.— 
Baptism as a public profession, is a real and great aid to righteous- 
ness. But the mere outward form of washing with water will not 
cleanse the soul. Compare Macbeth's words after his murderous act : 



" Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
Clean from my hand ? No ; this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
Making the green one red." 



16. The Spirit of God descending like a Dove. — "This is a 
most captivating symbolism. All along the ages it is the power of 
his gentleness and tenderness and meekness, — his love, in short, — 
that has been victorious. He has ' wooed and won.' " — Morison. 

We are apt to think of Jesus Christ as the only great 

manifestation of God' s love. But the Spirit is another ?7°^^^^^^ 

^ the Dove. 

manifestation of God's love. The dove expresses God's 
abiding love in our hearts ; even the Spirit produces, in the hearts of 
those who dwell in the spirit, the dove-like nature, — gentle, loving, 
attractive. The dove was historically connected in the Jewish 
mind with the abatement of the waters after the flood, and has be- 
come, as well as the olive branch, a symbol of peace, among all Chris- 
tian people. The dove and the fire are complimentary symbols ex- 
pressing different aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit, 



4A SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : I 



CHAPTER IV. 



A.D. 2T. 

yan. ail d Feb. 

THE 
TEMPTATION 

WILDERNESS 
OF JUDEA. 



T. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness 
to be tempted of the devil. 

Pictures. — The Temptation of Jesus, Ary 
Scheffer {Louvre), Dore, Cornicelius, Perugino {Vat- 
ican), Botticelli {Sistine Chapel), TintorettO {Scuola di 
San Rocco). 

I. The Devil, rov dta(^6Xov. Calumniator, slanderer, accuser, one who 
seeks by vile, false means to injure others by slandering God, mis- 
representing the truth, and so leading men astray. 



The Devil (diado/os), in the original, is always with the article, 

and always in the singular number. Whenever the plural "devils " 

is used, it is the translation of another word, "demons." It is 

no more unreasonable to believe in a personal devil 

No Sham than in bad men, bad leaders on earth. To deny the 
*^ * existence of the devil is to lay much heavier charges of 
evil on the nature of man than does the belief in Satan. This temp- 
tation was real. It was no sham fight, no mere form, for example's 
sake. Satan was in earnest, and intended to prevent the coming of 
the kingdom of heaven with every force he could master, and every 
scheme he could devise. And Jesus knew he could choose good or 
evil, and the result depended upon his choice. There was no fore- 
ordained certainty of victory. President Woolsey asks : " How is 
he an example to us, if his temptation is an unreality ? No ! They 
dishonor Christ's work who think thus." 



The Guise of Satan. — Satan must have come in some attractive 
disguise. Satan could not have come as Satan, as Apollyon to Bun- 
yan's Pilgrim, with horrible form and sulphurous and flaming breath; 
for then there would have been no temptation. He does not tempt 
us in that way, and Jesus was tempted " like as we are." He may 
have come as an angel of light, or perhaps as some traveler; or he 
suggested the temptations to his mind, as "the wicked ones whis- 
pcringly suggested many blasphemies " to Christian in the Valley of 
the Shadow of Death. 



IV : I MATTHEW 45 



A.». 27. 

Jan. and Feb. 

THE 
TEMPTATION 

WILDERNESS 
OF JTJDEA. 



Library. — Dr. Gregg's " Our Best Moods ; " 
Insects with Wings ; or, Beautiful Sins. — Dent. 
xiv. 19. 

Insects with Wings. — " Sin as a caterpillar is 
bad enough, but sin as a butterfly is a thousand 
times worse. 

" ' Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As to be hated, needs but to be seen ; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face. 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.' 

" If sin in its grossest form be thus dangerous, what must be the 
unmeasured power of sin when it puts on the robes of beauty.^ 
For the purpose of impressing upon my mind the beauty 
of the butterfly, I read a volume lately written by a pop- ^^..^j^ wings, 
ular entomologist with this as my sole objective point. 
It is said that the finest Mosaic picture contains as many as 870 
tessarae, or separate pieces to the square inch of surface ; but upon 
the same small space of a butterfly's wing the entomologist has 
counted no less than 150,000 separate glittering scales, each scale 
carrying in it a gorgeous color, beautiful and distinct. 

" On every wing there is a picture as varied as the rainbow. Ev- 
ery wing is iridescent w^ith different lights that shift and change. 
Here are patches of blue, and spots of purple, and lines of green, and 
aurelian, and red. Every wing is speckled and mottled, flecked and 
tinted. Here are fringes of snow-white, and waves of crimson, and 
whole chains of little crescents. The poets call the butterfly ' a flying 
and flashing gem,' ' a flower of paradise, gifted with the magic power 
of flight.' They tell us that its wings are as rich as the evening sky. 

" I want to magnify the transmutation of the caterpillar into the 

butterfly. I want to set into great prominence the great contrast 

between the crawler and the flyer. And why ? That I may remind 

you that the biitterfiy is only a caterpillar beautified with wings. It is 

only a painted worm decked in a velvet suit, and adorned with 

sparkling gems. Egg and caterpillar and butterfly, the three forms 

of this creature's existence, are one and of the same nature. It 

speaks too of the power of Satan to transform himself into an angel 

of light, and of the power of sin to make itself attractive, ^. ■ . 

* ^ Sins in 

and of the power of error to deck itself in robes that re- attractive 

semble the robes of truth, so that even the very elect of Forms. 



46 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV: I 

God are in danger of being deceived. For example, ' Sin beautifies 
itself by assuming and wearing the wings of wit,' as immorality and 
lust in some of our best literature ; the wings of fashion, the wings of 
art, the wings of attractive and pleasing names." — David Gregg, D.D. 



Picture Illustrations. — Mrs. Jamieson gives a sketch of a 

curious picture by Lucas van Leyden in his plates for the " New 

Testament," in which Satan is an old bearded man 

the Tempter, whose cowl resembles a fool's cap, and whose clawed 

hoof is seen under his long robe. In St. Mark's at 

Venice, the tempter is a black monster with tail and claws and horns. 

" Tintoretto, in his * Temptation of Christ,' in the Scuola di San 

Rocco, makes the tempter a beautiful angel with an evil face." 

— Farrars Life of Christ in Art. 
" The picture owes a great part of its effect to the lustre of the 
jewels in the armlet of this evil angel and to the beautiful color of 
his wings. The armlet is seen by reflected light, its stones shining 
by inward lustre, this occult fire being the only hint given of the real 
character of the tempter." — Ruskin, in Stones of Venice, cxvii. 41. 



How CAN A Holy Being be Tempted? — Simply because every 
living being has appetites, desires, avenues of pleasure and pain ; and 
the fuller and more perfect he is, the stronger and more sensitive are 
these feelings. These make temptation possible, but are neither 
holy nor sinful. Sin is the yielding to a wrong gratification of these 
right things. Jesus was tempted through the good that was in him ; 
by hunger, by the desire to redeem men and bring the world to God, 
by the desire to escape pain, by his love for men. 

" A righteous man, whose will never falters for a moment, may 
feel the attractiveness of the advantage more keenly than the weak 
man who succumbs, for the latter probably gave way before he rec- 
ognized the whole of the attractiveness, or his nature may be less 
capable of such recognition. In this way the sinlessness of Jesus 
augments his capacity for sympathy, for in every case he felt the fu/t 
force of temptation." — Prof Albert Plummer, D.D. 

" Sympathy with the sinner in his trial does not depend on the 
experience of sin, but on the experience of the strength of the tempta- 
tion to sin, which only the sinless can know in its full intensity, He 
who falls, yields before the last strain." — Westcott on Heb. ii. 18 ; In- 
ter?iatio?ial Critical Coimnentary on Luke. 



IV : I MATTHEW 47 
Hall Caine's Legend. — Our strongest tempta- ^ -^ 



A.I>. 27 

Jan. and Feb. 

THE 

TEMPTATION 



WILDERNESS 
OF JI7DEA. 



tions are those that are re-inforced from within, 
which take hold of our very natures. Our hardest 
work is to conquer our own selves. 

"There is a Northern legend of a man who 
thought he was pursued by a troll. His ricks 
were tired, his barns unroofed, his cattle destroyed, 
his lands blasted, and his firstborn slain. So he lay in wait for the 
monster where it lived in the chasms near his house, and in the dark- 
ness of night he saw it. With a cry he rushed upon it and gripped 
it about the waist, and it turned upon him and held him 
by the shoulder. Long he wrestled with it, reeling, stag- '^^^ Farmer 
gering, falling, and rising again ; but at length a flood of i^aw 
strength came to him and he overthrew it and stood 
over it, covering it, conquering it, with his back across his thigh and 
his right hand set hard at its throat. Then he drew his knife to kill 
it, and the moon shot through a rack of cloud, opening an alley of 
light about it, and he saw its face, and lol the face of the troll was 
his own I " — Hall Caine, in Proem to The Bondman. 



Tests and Temptations. — Temptations are trials, with the pur- 
pose and desire to make the one tempted to yield and fall. 

Tests are trials to prove whether a person or instrument is wor- 
thy, with the hope and desire that they shall stand the test. God 
tests and tries men, but never tempts. 

Thus Huxley, in comparing life to a game of chess, says : " The 
chess-board is the world ; the pieces are the phenomena of the uni- 
verse ; the rules are what we call the laws of nature. The player on 
the other side is hidden from us. We know that his 
play is always fair, just, and patient ; but also we knov/, Eetzsch's 
to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake or makes j^.^^^ 
the smallest allowance for ignorance. To the man who 
plays well the highest stakes are paid, and one w^ho plays ill is check- 
mated, without haste, but without remorse. My metaphor will re- 
mind some of you of the famous picture in which Retzsch has de- 
picted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. Substitute for 
the mocking fiend in that picture a calm, strong angel, who is play- 
ing for love, as we say, and would rather lose thaji win, and I would 
accept it as an image of human life." 

• — Prof. Huxley, in Lay Sermons, p. 31. 



48 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 1 

" While the great Brooklyn bridge was building, I was living in 
that city, and used to get delight in clambering over the rising 
structure. The chief engineer of the bridge was very kind to me ; and 
one day, while we were together climbing about the bridge, he took 
me to a peculiar sort of a machine. It was composed of great wheels 
moving a cylinder set over against some other great wheels moving 
another cylinder, each opposing cylinder possessing, if I remember 
rightly, mighty iron teeth or claws, able to seize and 
Tests of hold wire steadily and remorselessly. Coils of the wires 
^^? *^ which were to go to form the huge cables of the bridge 
were being unwound and grasped by these iron teeth 
or claws. Then the great wheels were set going, so that they 
revolved in ways opposite to each other, and thus a tense and tre- 
mendous strain was brought to bear upon the wire to see whether it 
were strong enough and honest enough for the high place and dig- 
nity of share in the majestic cables whence the roadway was to 
hang." — I^ev. Wayland Hoyt, D.D. 



* Have you ever taken a long journey on any of the main lines of 

railway ? If so, you will remember how, at the principal 

Testing stations, workmen come along and tap the wheels with 
Railroad , .. , , nni , , i 

Wheels, hammers to see if they are sound. The old travelers 

pay little or no attention to this proceeding, but a nerv- 
ous passenger, or one unaccustomed to it, thrusts his head out of 
the window in alarm." — Rev. Frank H. Cooper. 



Plato, in his " Republic," uses, as an illustration of the test of a 
truly honest man, the story of Gyges' ring. Gyges was a hired shep- 
herd of the governor of Lydia. One day a prodigious rain and 
earthquake tore open the earth where he was grazing 
lUu^^' ^^^ flock, and, entering into the opening, he found on 
the finger of a dead body a gold ring, which he took. 
At the next meeting of the shepherds to make their monthly report 
he happened to turn the stone of the ring toward himself in the 
inner part of his hand, when he found that he was invisible to those 
beside him, and they talked about him as if absent. Turning the 
stone outward he became visible again. By means of this power he 
slew the king, took possession of the queen and the kingdom. 

Now Plato suggests that the possesion of such a ring would test 
a person whether he were really righteous or not. If, with this 



IV : I MATTHEW 49 

power of doing wrong without discovery, he did 'i 
the wrong, he would be proved unrighteous, no 
matter what had been his outward actions before 
he received this power. Only when a man was 
so honest that he would be honest even in trans- 
actions where he could be dishonest and not be 
known, was he a truly honest man. 

— Republic, book 2, chap. iii. 



A.D. 27. 

Jan. and Feb. 

THE 

TEMPTATION 

WILDERNESS 
OP JUDEA. 



Temptations. — "All who would become strong and useful must 
gain their power largely through victory over temptation. It is thus 
that the soul ' builds itself larger mansions.' It is a chief factor in 
education, transmuting the baser metal of each individual into the 
nobler. 

" In physical things temptation, trial, risk, are essential to the best 
training. The wise father lets 'his son face the sun's heat, the rain, 
the snow, the storm, although he knows he is also facing croup, 
pneumonia, and catarrh.' He teaches him to ride a horse at the 
risk of a broken neck, and to swim at the risk of drowning. He will 
never learn to swim after the good old lady's formula, ' Yes, my dear, 
of course you must learn to swim, but don't go near the water.' " 
— Bishop Hugh M. Thompson.^ in The World a?id the Man, 



"While there are several larvae of moths that spin good and 
abundant silk, there are none that equal the mulberry silk-worm, or 
the Chinese silk-moth, Bombyx mori. This insect has been cared 
for so long that it has become feeble, pale, and nearly 
helpless; so that, should man fail to care for this valu- The Silk- 
able insect for a single year, the species would become orer-Care. 
extinct. We see here how too much care and fondling 
tends to weaken. It is not the boys and girls whose parents do every- 
thing for them that set the river on fire. The larvae are also helpless. 
If put out on the trees they are blown off and destroyed. Like the 
moth, long care and dependence has made that care necessary to 
life itself. And yet the larva is an enormous feeder, as any knows 
who has raised it. It is said to eat its own weight of leaves each 
day." — Prof. A.T. Cook, in Roofs Gleanings of Bee Culture. 



The legendary temptation of Sakhya Mani (afterwards Buddha) 
has sometimes been likened to the temptation of Christ. Edwin 



50 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : I 

Arnold, in " The Light of Asia," has borrowed phrases and ideas 
from the gospel, so as to give a false appearance of resemblance. 
When these are removed, and details which he omits are restored, 
the two accounts have no resemblance beyond the bare fact of a per- 
son being specially tempted when meditating a great work for the 
good of mankind, which is doubtless, in one shape or other, a uni- 
versal experience. 

Library.— See Kellogg, "The Light of Asia," and "The Light of 
the World," chap, iv., especially pp. 145-153. 



" In the legends of the East there is brought to us the 

'''®™P*fJ;*^ story of the temptation of Buddha on that night when 
of Buddha. ,, -'^ r ., i 1 j ^ , • 

all the powers of evil gathered around about him to 

assail him by violence or to entice him by wiles. 

" ' Nor knoweth one. 
Not even the wisest, how those fiends of hell 
Battled that night to keep the truth from Buddh : 
Sometimes with terrors of the tempest, blasts 
Of demon-armies clouding all the wind 
With thunder, and with blinding lightning flung 
In jagged javelins of purple wrath 
From splitting skies ; sometimes with wiles and words 
Fair-sounding, 'mid hushed leaves and softened airs 
From shapes of witching beauty ; wanton songs, 
Whispers of love ; sometimes with royal allures 
Of proffered rule ; sometimes with mocking doubts. 
Making truth vain.' " 

" So, in the mythology of Greece, we have the story of the tempta- 
tion of Hercules. Pleasure comes to him in wanton but bewitching 
form and bids him follow her, and promises him the cup of pleasure, 
and that he shall drink of it. She will strew his path 
with flowers all the way and accompany him with song 
and dancing. Wisdom comes to him with sterner voice — with 
beauty, indeed, but with solemn and almost forbidding beauty — and 
calls him to combat and to battle, that he may win manhood. So, 
in the later history of the Church, is the strange, mystical — super- 
stitious, if you will — story of the temptation of St. Anthony, with 



IV : I MATTHEW 61 



A.D. 27. 

Jan. and Feb. 

THE 

TEMPTATION 

WILDERNESS 
OF JUDEA. 



its wiles and its enticements, with its demons invit- 
ing to sin by smiles and its demons tormenting 
with red-hot pincers. In human history we find 
the same or like record. We have like tempta- 
tions in the lives of John Wesley, of Luther, of 
Xavier, of Loyola. Open the page of history where 
you will, and you can hardly find the story of any 
great, noble, prophetic soul that has not had its hour of battle with 
the powers of darkness." — Lyjuan Abbott. 
References. See under vi. 13, and vi. 19. 



Two Forms of Temptation. — Sometimes temptation comes to 
us like an army with open attack, but more often like a malaria. 
We breathe in the poisoned air from neighboring marshes ; we bring 
the deadly sewer gas into our houses by the very tri- 
umph of modern conveniences; cesspools in hundreds ^P^^^^tack 

. . or iil&iariaii 

of yards send up their malaria to enter every open win- 
dow in summer, and then in winter we shut up every crack and 
crevice lest God's pure air enter our rooms, to save coal ; till our 
whole systems are poisoned, and in some hour of weakness or over- 
work suddenly we are consumed with a burning fever. If the fever 
had come like a deadly serpent, we would have avoided it ; if it had 
come like the north wind, we would have sheltered ourselves from 
it ; if in battle array, we could fight it. But it has come with our 
daily breath, its footsteps unheard, without knocking at the door, 
and has insidiously poisoned our whole system before we were aware 
of our danger. 



'?3^ 



Library. — The story of Rappacini's daughter in Hawthorne's 
" Mosses from an Old Manse." The father was a chemist, who was 
investigating poisons, and had a charming garden in which every 
plant and flower was poison. His beautiful daughter lived in this 
poison atmosphere till her own breath was poison, and the bees and 
insects which came within its influence fell withered and dead at her 
feet. Her lover, too, was gradually impregnated with the same poi- 
son. These insidious temptations are the most dangerous of all. 

Rogers' " Greyson Letters " has for one of its chapters " The Mad- 
man and the Devil," representing how little trouble Satan has in 
tempting some people, for they go to him and ask, " Hae na ye 
some dainty temptation for me to-day now, Daddy Satan ? I'm sair 
wracked for a coaxing temptation." 



52 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 2-4 

2. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward 
ahungered. 

3. And when the tempter came to him, he said. If thou be the Son of God, com- 
mand that these stones be made bread. 

4. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not hve by bread alone, but 
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 

Milton's " Paradise Regained," Book III. The Greek story of Circe 
in Homer's "Odyssey," best told in Hawthorne's exquisite "Tan- 
glevvood Tales." The Greek story of the Sirens, also told by Homer. 
Trench's poems, " Orpheus and the Sirens " illustrates the two 
ways of overcoming their fascination. The tract, " Parley the Por- 
ter " (American Tract Society). The story of " St. Anthony and his 
Temptation " in Foster's Cyclopedia, No, 5657, 



In the Wilderness. — "Jesus in the wilderness stands for Hu- 
manity in the world. It is a rough world. It is a wilderness to the 
Son of God." But he is there by his victory to change the wilder- 
ness into the Paradise of God. 



2-4. The Temptation through Hunger.— The temptation 
was very intense. Those who have read stories of shipwrecked 
sailors, or of sieges, as that of Jerusalem, where women ate their 
own children, can have some conception of the intense craving of 
Jesus' hunger at this time. No stronger temptation could come to 
man. And the desire was wholly innocent. 



Example. — Esau selling his birthright for a mess of pottage. 1 
Our souls are full of hungers and thirsts — not only for food, but 
for riches, for love, for social success, for art and music, and all beau- 
tiful things. 

" There may be a hunger of the heart, there may be a famine — not 
merely for daily food, but a starving of our inner being, of our 
heart's affections, to which we must submit rather than disobey the 
precept of Almighty God." 



Note. — There are three questions that must be answered concerning each tempta- 
tion, in order to understand it, — (i) What made the act desirable, so as to become a 
temptation to an innocent being ? (2) What was the wrong in doing it ? (3) How did 
Jesus gain the victory ? 



I V : :; MATTHEW 53 



A.D. 27. 

Ja7t. and Feb. 

THE 
TEMPTATION 

WILDEKNESS 
OP JUDEA. 



5. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth 
him on a pinnacle of the temple. 

Library. — It is the choice between starvation 
and sin that has given such tragic power to Victor 
Hugo's " Les Miserables." 

"It was once said to the great English moralist, Dr. Johnson, 
' A man, after all, must live.' To which Dr. Johnson replied, ' Sir, 
I do not see the necessity.' There is no necessity to live; but, my 
brothers, there is every moral necessity not to forfeit our self-re- 
spect while we live." — Biblical World. 



He might have reared a palace at a word 

Who sometimes had not where to lay His head. 

Time was when He who nourished crowds with bread 
Would not one meal unto Himself afford. 
He healed another's scratch ; His own side bled. 

Side, feet, and hands with cruel piercings gored. 

Twelve legions girded with angelic sword 
Stood at His beck, the scorned and buffeted. 
Oh, wonderful the wonders left undone. 

And scarce less wonderful than those He wrought ! 

Oh, self-restraint, surpassing human thought, 
To have all power, yet be as having none ! 
Oh, self-denying love that thought alone 
For needs of others, never for its own ! " 



5. Taketh, 7Tapa?iafij3dvei from Tzapd, with, by the side of, and 
TiajUjSdvo), to take. He took along with him. 



Pinnacle, to Trrepvyiov, a little wing, as pinnacuhtrd, is a diminu- 
tive oipenna, a wing. Hence it was not a spire, but a wing of the 
temple. 



Cast Thyself Down. — It is the Devil, says St. Chrysostom, who 
counsels " Cast thyself down." The word of the Lord is " Come up 
higher." 



54 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV: 6,7 



6. And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down : for it is 
written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee : and in their hands they 
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 

7. Jesus said unto him. It is written again, Thou shalt not empt the Lord thy God. 

Satan quoting Scripture. — Many a temptation has come from 
misapplying Scripture. Ian Maclaren said that the Scotch High- 
landers picked out from the Scriptures all that pertained to war. A 
Massachusetts father some years ago killed his child through mis- 
applying Abraham's proposed sacrifice of Isaac, 



Antonio, in the " Merchant of Venice," says : 

" The Devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. 
An evil soul producing holy witness 
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, 
A goodly apple rotten at the heart." — Act I., Scene 3. 



Richard of Gloster, in " Richard III.," confesses : 

" But then I sigh, and with a piece of Scripture 
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil. 
And thus I clothe my naked villainy 
With old odd ends stolen forth of Holy Writ, 
And seem a saint when most I play the devil." 

— Act I., Scene 3. 



Of all the arts sagacious dupes invent 

To cheat themselves and gain the world's assent, 

The worst is — Scripture warped from its intent." 

— Cow per. 



Library. — In one of Scott's stories the Templar essays to corrupt 
the Jewess by citing the examples of David and Solomon. " If thou 
readest the Scriptures," retorts Rebecca, "and the lives of the 
saints only to justify thine own license and profligacy, thy crime is 
like that of him who extracteth poison from the most healthful and 
necessary herbs." 

Jacox's, "Secular Annotations," Vol. I., The Tempter's "It Is 
Written," refers to various examples in literature and history. 



IV : 8, 9 MATTHEW 55 



8. Agfain, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high 
mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and 
the glory of them ; 

g. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if 
thou wilt fall down and worship me. 



A.D. 27. 

yan. and Feb. 

THE 

TEMPTATIOX 

wildernt:53 

OF JUDEA. 



8. Showeth Him all the Kingdoms of the World.— Milton, 
in his " Paradise Regained," pictures with matchless skill, " our Lord 
as lost in meditation upon the means by which his king- 
dom can be founded and built up." Thus Satan ap- ^?^!*'^'^ 

Picture. 
pealed to the noblest feelings and purest aspirations of 

Jesus, offering him, apparently, the ver}- things he had come to this 
world to bring. This method of gaining the kingdom was the one 
the Jews desired and expected. 

" Victorious deeds 
Flamed in my heart ; heroic acts, — one while 
To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke, 
Then to subdue and quell o'er all the earth 
Brute violence and proud tyrannic power.'' 

"Yet held it more humane, more heavenly, first 
By winning souls to conquer willing hearts 

And make persuasion do the work of fear." 



There is a curious little picture in the Crystal Palace galler}^ of 
Munich, called " The Red Fisherman." The devil in red 
costume is fishing for men who are like fishes in a pond. Fisherman. 

The bait on his hook consists of gold coins, but near 
him are other kinds of bait, — crowns, swords, wines, jewels. 

" Daughters of Time the hypocritic da5% 
Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, 
And marching single in an endless file, 
Bring diadems and fagots in their hands. 
To each they offer gifts after his will, — 
Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all." 



9. All these Things will I give Thee.— In a measure Satan 
did have these things. Christ later called him the " prince of this 



56 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 10 



lo. Then saith Jesus unto him, get thee hence, Satan : for it is written, Thou shalt 
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 

world." On everything he had stamped his seal, " The trail of the 
serpent was over them all." I will relinquish my opposition, and 
your ideal shall become the real at once. You shall 

" Of the future borrow, 
Clothe the waste with dreams of grain, 
And on the midnight sky of rain 

Paint the Golden Morrow." 

The kingdom of God will come in the place of the cruel and op- 
pressive kingdoms then in power ; and come at once without pain or 
the cross, without humility and reproach, but with glory and power. 
There will be no long delay, no slow and painful process, lasting 
through generations, no conflict, no persecutions, no great self- 
denials, no martyrdoms, no soul lost ; but the new era, the good 
time coming, will burst at once into noontide glory over all the 
earth. 



If Thou will fall down and Worship Me, not in outward 
form, but in reality, as men now " worship the almighty dollar." 
This condition destroyed the very aims Jesus sought. 



The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, in Moore's " Lalla Rookh," 
is a vivid picture of Satan when he comes to tempt mankind, and of 
his method of temptation. The prophet chief kept over his features 

a silver veil, which he said 
Zelica and 
the Prophet "He had flung 

of the jj^ mercy there, to hide from mortal sia:ht 

Silver VeiL ^^. , ,. , .„ 11, . ,. , .. 

His dazzlmg brow, till man could bear its light. 

He represented himself as an Arm Divine raised to right the na- 
tions to exalt and to refine the human race of gods. 

"On his white flag, Mokanna's host unfurled 
These words of sunshine, Freedom to the world** 



IV : lO MATTHEW 57 



A.D. 27. 

Jan. and Feb. 

THE 

TEMPTATION 

WILDERNESS 
OF JUDEA. 

fe 4 



His young enthusiastic follower 

" Kneeling, pale. 
With pious awe before the silver veil, 
Believes the form, to which he bends the knee. 
Some pure redeeming angel sent to free 
This fettered world from every bond and stain, 
And bring its primal glories back again." 

The beautiful Zelica, believing the promises of the Veiled Prophet, 
and looking toward happiness, purity and heaven, is led away into a 
dim charnel house, and there, among the dead, she pledges herself 
in a bowl of blood to be his forever. 

When the Veiled Prophet had bound his victim in these terrible 
bonds, he began to reveal his true nature, his hideous hypocrisy, his 
terrible purposes. 

"And now thou see'st my souVs angelic hue, 
'Tis time these features were uncurtained, too ; — 
Now turn and look" — 

(Raising the silver veil) — 

" Here, judge if hell, with all its power to damn. 
Can add one curse to the foul thing I am." 



" The bad man sits retailing away heaven and salvation for pence, 
and seldom vends any commodity, but he sells his soul with it, like 
brown paper, into the bargain." — Robert South. 



Library. — N. P. Willis' poems, " Parrhasius," shows how futile is 
ambition gained by sin : 

" How like a mounting devil in the heart 
Rules the unreined ambition ; 

Ambition only gives, 
Even of bitterness, a beaker /z^//." 

Robert Browning's poems, " Bishop Blougram's Apology," shows 
the vanity of "success at any cost." 



58 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV: II 



II. Then the devil leaveth hmi, and, behold angels came and ministered unto 
him. 

II. Angels Came and Ministered unto Him. — After the bat- 
tle and victory come sweet blessings from heaven, beyond the power 
of the untried heart to conceive. Says Lyman Abbott, 
Peace " Great souls come to great peace only after great con- 
Tkto^^ flict. Not till in his own life and soul the devil has 
been vanquished can any one of us vanquish him for 
others ; and the greater his battle for others is to be, the greater the 
battle in and for himself will be," 

The wise man ever prays : Lead us not into temptation ; but when 
he is tempted, he is not to run away, but to overcome. The great- 
est battles of the world have been spiritual battles with 
Victory temptation. And when God's day comes to bestow 
Battiefllid ^^^ rewards described in Revelation for those who over- 
of the come, it will be seen that in this unseen warfare have the 
Heart. grandest victories been gained, and the loftiest heroism 
displayed ; and far beyond the heroes and victors whose 
deeds "echo through the corridors of time," shall be emblazoned 
among God's eternal stars the heroes and conquerors on the battle- 
fields of the heart. 



Library.— Longfellow's poem, "The Ladder of St. Augustine." 
In another poem Count Arnaldos, standing on the shore, heard some 
sailors in their vessel 

" Chant a song so wild and clear. 
That the sailing sea-bird slowly 
Poised upon the mast to hear ; 

Till his soul was full of longing, 

And he cried with impulse strong, 
* Helmsman, for the love of heaven, 
Teach me, too, that wondrous song,' 

'Would thou,' so the helmsman answered, 

' Learn the secret of the sea } 
Only those who brave its dangers 

Comprehend its mystery.' " — Longfellow, 



IV: II 



MATTHEW 



59 



So only those who battle with temptation, and 
breast its storms, can know the fullness of the 
joy and peace of the victors, when angels come 
and minister unto them. 



Between verses ii and 12 belongs the whole of 
the first year of Jesus' public ministry — the Year 
of Beginnings ; the Judean Ministry. 



Dec. A.U. 27 

TO 

Oct. A.D. 29. 

A year and a 
h^lf. 

THE GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

A bird's eye 
VIEW. 



12-17. From the following little diagram we obtain ageneral view of 
the life of Christ, and can see more clearly where these verses belong : 



Birth. 



4 years 

before 

our 

A.D. I. 

(Dec. 
B.C. S-") 
Bethle- 
hem. 



YOLTH. 


Prepa- 




ration . 




Jan. 


B.C. 4 


A.D. 27. 


to 


Bap- 


A.D. 26. 


tism. 




Temp- 




tation. 


Naza- 




reth. 


Age 30. 



I. 

Year of 
Begin- 
nings. 



A.D. 27. 
Judean 
ministry . 
First things, 
first disci- 
ples, mira- 
cle, tour, 
teachings, 
etc. 



II. 

Year of 
Develop- 
ment. 



A.D. 28. 
Galilean 
■ministry. 
Era of the 
principles of 
the king- 
dom. 
Era of 
teaching by 
parables. 



III. 



Year of 
Success. 



A.D. 29. 
Galilee. 
Perea. 
Era of 
transfigura- 
tion and an- 
nouncement 
of his 
death. 
Era of op- 
position. 



Last 


Cruci- 


Weeks. 


fixion. 


A.D. 30. 


Era of 


P ere an 


Lord's 


minis- 
try. 
Proph- 


supper. 


Culmi- 


ecy of 


nation 


last 


of his 


things. 


life. 



Resur- 
rec- 
tion. 



Era 
of 
new 
life, 
and 
church 
begun. 



John the Baptist. His public ministry, 



In prison. Death. 



Galilee. — The country and its people. Galilee contained about 
2,000 square miles, or about one-third of Palestine proper, with a 
population of 3,000,000. Josephus says that it included 204 cities 
and villages, the smallest of w^hich had 15,000 inhabitants. The soil 
was very fertile, the vineyards and orchards were very fruitful. 
There were prosperous manufactories, and a great trade betw^een 
Egypt and Damascus passed through the region. The Sea of Gali- 
lee " was covered with vessels engaged in traffic and fisheries, and 
its shores were dotted with cities and villages." The people were 
industrious, intelligent and active. Many were rich. It was a com- 
mon saying, according to Edersheim, " If a person wishes to be rich, 
let him go north (to Galilee); if he wants to be wise, let him come 
south" (to Jerusalem). Moreover, being so far away from Jerusa- 
lem, the religious center, and in such frequent contact with other 
peoples, they were more tolerant and less bound by tradition than 
the people of Judea. Thus in many ways this was the most hopeful 
field in all Palestine for gaining a foothold and reception for the 
new kins:dom of God. 



60 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV:l2-l6 



12. ^[ Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison he departed into 
Galilee ; 

13. And leaving Nazareth he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the 
sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim : 

14. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 

15. The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, be- 
yond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles ; 

16. The people which sat in darkness saw great light ; and to them which sat in 
the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. 

" Those holy fields 
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet 
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed 
For our advantage on the bitter cross." — Shakespeare. 



12. Jesus. — On the appearance of Jesus see Farrar's " Life of Christ 
in Art," 67-95: "It is absolutely certain that the world and the 
church have lost forever all vestige of trustworthy tradition con- 
cerning the aspect of Jesus on earth." And it is well. While he 
must have been attractive, winning, prepossessing, yet we remember 
that Socrates was winning, and yet had a most homely face ; and 
Paul was winning, and yet his bodily presence was weak. " The 
popular conception of Christ in the early church was of the strong, 
the joyous youth, of eternal growth, of immortal grace." " During 
the first 400 years there is probably no representation of Christ as 
bearded, or as a weary and worn sufferer." They thought of him , as 
glorified, as seen by Paul at his conversion, or by John on Patmos. 

16. "The People which sat. — {6 mdyuEvog). The article with 
the participle signifying something characteristic or habitual: the 
people 'whose characteristic it was to sit in darkness. This thought 
is emphasized by repetition in a stronger form ; sitting in the region 
of the shadow of death. Death is personified. This land whose in- 
habitants are spiritually dead belongs to Death, as the realm of his 
government." — M, R. Vincent, in Word Studies. 



Saw a Great Light. — ^Jesus does for man what the light of the 
sun does for the world. 

" Every tree, plant and flower grows and flourishes by the grace 
and bounty of the sun. Leaving out of account the eruptions of 



IV : l6 MATTHEW 61 

volcanoes and the ebb and flow of the tides, every 'i' 
mechanical action on the earth's surface, every 
manifestation of power, organic and inorganic, 
vital and physical, is produced by the sun. 
Every fire that burns, and every flame that 
glows, dispenses light and heat which originally 
belonged to the sun. The sun digs the ore from 
our mines, he rolls the iron, he rivets the plates, 
he boils the water, he draws the train. Thunder 
and lightning are also his transmuted strength. And remember 
this is not poetry, but rigid, mechanical truth. Look at 
the integrated energies of the world. What are they ? ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ 
They are all generated by a portion of the sun's energy, 
which does not amount to one two-thousand-three-hundred-mil- 
lionth of the whole." — Prof. Tyndall. 



I>ec. A.D. 27 

TO 

Oct. A.D. 29. 

A year and a 
half. 

THE GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

A bird's eye 
YIEAV. 

, ►! 



Aristotle, in one of his works, fancies the feelings of one who, 
having lived in darkness all his life, should for the first time behold 
the rising of the sun. He might have had some idea of the world 
from the light of candles or of moon and stars ; but when 
the sun rose, what new glories would burst on his vision ! ^^a^^y of 
how much more beautiful, more perfect, far-reaching 
than he could have conceived ! The dangers, too, would be shown 
in clearer light, as well as the safe roads. Like this was the coming 
of Christ to the world, " a dayspring from on high" Like this is the 
receiving of Christ into our souls. 



The same truth may be illustrated by the children of those sent 
by the Russian Government to the mines of Siberia, and who, once 
entering the depths, never again come up to the light. 

Children are born in those mines, and live for years, ^,^^^y^ 

^ the Mines. 

knowing no larger or brighter world than those torch- 
lit mines. Christ coming into our souls is like the bringing of one 
of these children out of his damp, dark, narrow mine into the fresh 
air and bright sun and beautiful fields and wide landscapes of the 
upper world. 

" I HAVE seen a picture that I used at one time to think a good 
deal of, but now that I have come to look at it more closely I would 



62 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV: 1/ 



17. H From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent : for the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand. 

not put it in my house except I turned the face of it to the waU. It 

represents Christ standing at a door knocking, and 

Christ the having a big lantern in his hand. Why, you might as 

Light of well hang up a lantern to the sun as put one into Christ's 

the norld. ^^^^^^ jjg jg ^]^g g^j^ ^f Righteousness, and it is our 

privilege to walk in the light of an unclouded sun." — £>. L. Moody. 

" Christ announced himself as the ' Light of the World.' Not Hol- 
man Hunt's * Light of the World,' who resembles a belated and for- 
lorn traveler carrying a lantefn, but one who had the light in him, 
and through whom it gleamed like the sun through a summer cloud. 
Plato lighted his age with gas ; Christ lighted the world with the 
sun." — Parker. 

The Bartholdi Statue of Liberty enlightening the world in 
New York harbor symbolizes the gospel which enlightens the world, 
and placed on the church for a pedestal, holds up Jesus to let all on 
the stormy sea of life see the light of the world and safely reach the 
desired haven. 

Library. — Dante's visit to the regions of the dead, and the con- 
trast as he rose from the darkness, where 

" On our view the beautiful hills of heaven 
Dawned through a circular opening in the cave ; 
Thence issuing, we again beheld the stars." 

Farrar's " Christ in Art," p. 33 : " Few facts are more striking in 
the history of early Christianity than that its records are so largely 
borrowed from the dark, subterranean places where, martyrs were 
buried, and the persecuted took refuge, yet all their emblems were 
emblems of gladness." , 

17. RepenTo— The first condition for a redeemed world is the re- 
demption of the individual. The stones must be prepared before 
the temple can be built. 

If one would join a choir, he must learn to sing; if he would speak 
in a foreign tongue, he must learn the language. This is well illus- 



IV: 1/ MATTHEW 63 



trated by the touching story, " The Sister's 
Dream of Heaven," a five-cent tract, published 
by William Knowles, New York. 

Reference. See on Repentance under iii. 2. 



Dec. A.B. 27 

TO 

Oct. A.D. 29. 

A year and a 
half. 

THE GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 

A bird's-eye 
VIEW. 



Rev. F. B. Meyer relates, in the Golden Rule, 
the following incident which took place at a 
Northfield summer conference, after he had been 
preaching in the morning : 

" In the a.^ternoon he appeared ^-ith a young apple-tree which he 
had uprooted from his garden, and commenced the following con- 
versation with his brother, whom he had brought to the hall for the 
purpose, and who is a practical gardener : 

" Erecting the young apple-tree on the platform, and propping it 
up with one hand, he asked : 

" ' Would this stock produce apples } ' 

" ' No ; it is a young forest sapling.' 

" ' How, then, did you get these apples ? ' 

" * We ingrafted the slip of an apple-tree.' 

** * How did you graft ? ' 

"'We made the incision with the knife and inserted the apple- 
graft.' 

" ' Well, what next ? ' 

" * All the sap and strength of the sapling began to pour into the 
graft.' 

" Turning to me, Mr Moody said before all the people : 

"*Is not that something like regeneration, when Christ comes 
into our heart and our life begins to flow through him } ' 

" Questioning his brother again, he said : 

" ' Supposing there come shoots under the graft, would not they 
divert the strength of the tree ? ' 

" ' Certainly ; they must be cut off.' 

" * Supposing you cut them off once, will they come again ? ' 

" ' There is always a tendency to do so ; but, for the most part, if 
you cut a shoot off three times in the same place, it will not trouble 
you again there, but the old stock will probably break out in another 
place lower down ; and, when you have thoroughly dealt with that, 
it will break out lower down again.' 

" Turning to me, Mr. Moody said : 

" ' Is not that like our old nature, perpetually striving to get the 



64 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : l8 



i8. T[ And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called 
Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea ; for they were fishers. 

mastery ? There is nothing for it but to let the Holy Spirit deal 
with it, and his dealing always means crucifixion,' 

" No one will ever forget the lesson of that afternoon." 

Reference. See on iii. i. 



Library. — Shakespeare's " Hamlet," the soliloquy of the King of 
Denmark, beginning, "Oh, my offence is rank," Act III., Scene 3. 



17. The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand. — The ordinary 
great seal of the United States is commonly seen, but the design for 
the reverse side I have never seen, except on the outside of some of 
the postal cars and in the encyclopaedia. The design 
Reverse is an unfinished pyramid ; over it is an eye symbolizing 
-t ds^ t God's providence and the motto, " Anmtzt ccBpizs," "He 
Seal. favors what has been begun "; and underneath the 
motto, " Novus ordo seculorum" "A new order of the 
ages." Much more may Christ's coming and the gospel of his king- 
dom be called, " a new order of the ages," and with him not only the 
individual man, but the world will be completed. 



Pictures. — Christ and the Fisher77tan, Zimmermann. 



18. By the Sea of Galilee.— 

" Clear silver water in a cup of gold. 
It shines — his lake — the sea of Chinnereth— 
The waves he loved, the waves that kissed his feet 
So many blessed days. Oh, happy waves ! 
Oh, little silver happy sea ! " 

" O Galilee, sweet Galilee, 

Where Jesus loved so much to be ; 
O Galilee, blue Galilee, 

Come sing thy song again to me." 



Simon called Peter. — He was Simon when Christ first called 
him (John i. 42), and Peter was the prophetic name Jesus gave 



IV: 19,20 MATTHEW 65 



A.D. 28. 

April and May. 

CALLING THE 

EAELY 

DISCIPLES. 

GREAT GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 



19. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make 
you fishers of men. 

20. And they straightway left their nets, and followed 
him. 

him. It expressed the possibiHties within him. 
It became his true name after much instruction, 
hard experiences, some falls, much prayer, and abiding with Jesus. 

" Thine early dreams, which came in shapes of light. 

Came bearing prophecy. 
Commissioned sweetly to unfold 

A Possible to thee. 
And God shall make divinely real 
The highest forms of thy ideal." — Margaret Preston. 



For they were Fishers. — " Do not repress a boy because his 
home is plain and unpretending. Abraham Lincoln's early home 
was a log cabin. Nor because of the ignorance of his parents. 
Shakespeare, the world's poet was the son of a man who was unable 
to write his own name. Nor because he chooses a humble trade. 
The author of the ' Pilgrim's Progress ' was a tinker. Nor because 
of physical disability. Milton was blind. Nor because of dullness 
in his lessons. Hogarth, the celebrated painter and engraver, was a 
stupid boy at his books. Nor because he stutters. Demosthenes, 
the greatest orator of Greece, overcame a harsh and stammering 
voice." — Christian Advocate. 

19. I WILL MAKE YOU FiSHERS OF Men. — " Hencc the favorite 
early Christian symbol of the ' Fish.' 'We little fishes,' says Tertul- 
lian, 'after our Fish (1X9X2) are born in the water (of baptism).' 
The first letters of the title of Christ in Greek, — 

VrjOovQ, XpiGTog Qeov Tloc I^ur^p, 

Jesus Christ God's Son the Saviour 

— make the Greek word for fish, 1X9X2, Ichthus. It was quite com- 
mon fifty years ago for weather vanes or church spires to be in the form 
of a fish — a reproduction, probably, of this early Christian symbol." 

— George M.Adams, D.D, 



66 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV: 21 



21. And going on from thenc?, he saw other two brethren, James t^e son of Zebe- 
dee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets ; 
and he called them. 

1. The sea is the evil world. In the oldest Christian hymn extant 
(by Clement of Alexandria) Christ is addressed as — 

" Fishers of men the blest, 
Out of ^/le world's wirest. 
Out of sin's troubled sea. 
Taking us, Lord, to thee." — Rev. Com. 

Out of this restless sea we are to bring men to the rest and peace 
and holiness of Christ. 

2. The line and the net are the gospel, with all its attractions and 
means of gaining souls. 

3. The net is of no use without the fishermen. It is personal 

work by those who are anxious to save men that brings 
^Me? ^ them to Jesus. A leading Baptist clergyman said not 

long since that the experience of their missions had 
taught them that little success was gained by the printed word, with- 
out the living presence of the missionary. The personal element is 
a very important factor in all gospel work. 

4. The object is to bring men to the shore of eternal life. The 
very word catch implies, as we have seen above, to take alive, to bring 
men into the kingdom of God. 

" There is, indeed, an aspect in which the death of the fish, which 
follows on its being drawn out of the waters, has its analogy in the 
higher spiritual world. The man, drawn forth by these Gospel nets 
from the worldly sinful element in which before he lived and moved, 
does die to sin, die to the world, but only that out of this death he 
may rise to a higher life in Christ. This is brought out with much 
beauty by Origen (Horn. 16 in Jerem.)." — Trench. 

5. " Again, the work of the fisher is rather a work of art and skill 
than of force and violence." — Trench. 

The fisherman attracts rather than drives. Great skill, patient toil, 
watchfulness, and care are necessary. The use of the right bait, and 
especially in much fishing, the keeping one's self out of sight. 

6. " I watched an old man trout fishing the other day. He was 

very successful. I asked him the secret of his success. 

/^I*'.*. ^ ' Well, you see, sir, there be three rules for trout fishing:, 
out of Sight. ' / ' ' &» 

and It is no good trying if you don t mind them. The first 



IV: 21 MATTHEW 67 



is, Keep jyourse/f out of sight; and the second is, 
Keep yourself farther out of sight ; and the third 
is, Keep yourself farther still out of sight.' Good 
for catching men, too, I thought." 

— Mark Guy Pearse. 



A.D. 28. 

April and May. 

CALLING THE 

EARLY 

DISCI i^LES 

GREAT GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 



Skill in Fishing for Men.—" It seems to me that this matter 
of Christian work carries with it the responsibility of skillful attain- 
ment. Now I suppose it is because I am so often fishing that I 
have thought a great deal about that statement of the Master, ' I 
will make you fishers of men.' Monday, when the day is pleasant, 
I go fishing and make sermons in the boat. The fish we like 
to catch in New York Bay are striped bass. They are wonderful 
fish, beautiful fellows ; and, 1 tell you, when you have a slender 
pole and a good, strong reel and a float, and you are looking at 
it, and one of these seven-pound striped bass snaps at the hook and 
takes that float under, and then whiz-z-z-z-z ! — oh, I tell you, it is 
indescribable. But you never catch bass haphazard — never; you 
always have to go into the special place where they run, and they 
are always particular about bait. Sometimes they will take shrimp, 
and sometimes they will not touch shrimp, nor take anything but 
clam, and sometimes they will take neither clam nor shrimp, they 
will only take shred or crab. Well, you have to try. You fling out 
to them shrimp, and nothing comes of it ; clam, nothing comes of 
it ; shred or crab, and you wait. It takes patience ; but there is a 
strike, and there he is, a magnificent fellow. ' I will make you fishers 
of men.' You never get a Sunday-school scholar haphazard — never ; 
you are under the responsibility of skillful attainment. If you cannot 
reach them one way, try another, and then wait and pray, but be bound 
to take them before the sun goes down." — Way land Hoy t, D.D. 



THE BLOODLESS SPORTSMAN. 

I go a-gunning, but take no gun ; 

I fish without a pole ; 
And I bag good game and catch such fish 

As suit a sportsman's soul ; 
For the choicest game that the forest holds. 

And the best fish of the brook, 
Are never brought down by a rifle-shot 

And never are causfht with a hook. 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 22 



22. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him. 

I bob for fish by the forest brook, 

I hunt for game in the trees, 
For bigger birds than wing the air 

Or fish that swim the seas. 
A rodless Walton of the brooks, 

A bloodless sportsman, I — 
I hunt for the thoughts that throng the woods. 

The dreams that haunt the sky. 

The woods were made for the hunters of dreams, 

The brooks for the fishers of song ; 
To the hunters who hunt for the gunless game 

The streams and the woods belong. 
There are thoughts that moan from the soul of the pine. 

And thoughts in a flower bell curled ; 
And the thoughts that are blown with the scent of the fern 

Are as new and as old as the world. 

So away ! for the hunt in the fern-scented wood 

Till the going down of the sun ; 
There is plenty of game still left in the woods 

For the hunter who has no gun. 
So away ! for the fish by the moss-bordered brook 

That flows through the velvety sod ; 
There are plenty of fish still left in the streams 

For the angler who has no rod. 

— S. W. Foss, ill New York Sun. 



Library. — " Fishin' Jimmy.' 



22. They left their Father and followed Him. 



Library.— The choice of Pizarro and his followers related in 
Prescott's "Conquest of Peru," vol. i., 263-65. 

Pictures. — Jesus Preaching- to the Multitude, Dore ; Christ the 
Cofisoler, Plockhorst ; Christus Consotator, Ary Scheffer ; Dore's Vale 



IV : 23, 24 MATTHEW 69 



A.B. 28. 

April and May. 

CALLING THE 

EAKLY 

DISCIPLES 

GREAT GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 



23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their 
synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and 
healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease 
among the people. 

24. And his fame went throughout all Syria : and they 
brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers 
diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with 
devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the 
palsy ; and he healed tliem. 

of Tears is very touching ; Christ Healing the Sick, Schonherr, Zim- 
mermann, Hoffmann ; Raising of Jairus Daughter, Richter and 
Hoffmann ; Healing the Leper, Bida. 



23, 24. Sickness, Disease, Torments, Taken, Lunatic. — " The 
description of the ailments to which our Lord's power was applied, 
gains vividness by study of the words in detail. 

In verse 23, the Rev. rightly transposes sickness and disease ; for 
voGog- (A. v., sickjiess) carries the notion of something severe, danger- 
ous, and even violent (compare the Latin noceo, to hurt, to which 
the root is akin). Homer always represents voaog as the visitation 
of an angry deity. Hence used of the plague which Apollo sent 
upon the Greeks (Iliad, i. 10). So Sophocles (Antigone, 421) calls a 
whirlwind -Q^dav vooov (a divine visitaiioJi). Disease is, therefore, the 
more correct rendering as expressing something stronger than sick- 
ness or debility. Sickness, however, suits the other word fia/iadav. 
The kindred adjective, fia'AaKog, means soft, as a couch or a newly 
ploughed furrow, and thus easily runs into our invidious moral 
sense of softness, namely, effeminacy or cowardice, and into the 
physical sense of weakness, sickness. Hence the word emphasizes 
the idea of debility rather than a violent suffering or danger. The 
idea of suffering is emphasized in the word taken (uwexo/j-evovg), which 
means literally held-together or compressed. Note the word toriJieJits^ 
^aadvocg. Bdcavog originally meant the " Lydian stone," or touch- 
stone, on which pure gold when rubbed leaves a peculiar mark. 

Hence naturally a test, then a test or trial by torture. Thus the 
idea of test gradually passes entirely out of (Sdaavng, leaving merely the 
idea of suffering or torture." — M. R. Vincent, in Word Studies. 

Lunatic, ozkrjvia^oiikvovg, literally nioonstruck. The word lunatic 
is derived from luna, the Latin word for moon, from the ancient 
belief that the changes of the moon affected mad persons. Hence, 



70 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV : 23, 24 

properly, a person who has lucid intervals. Prof. G. Stanley Hall 
says that it is now regarded by medical science that the moon is a 
cure for lunacy. R. V. translates epileptic, for " the Greek term was 
not applied to insanity, but to epilepsy, which the ancients supposed 
to become worse at certain stages of the xnoon."-v-Broadus. 



23. Healing all Manner of Disease. — We should gain a clear 
conception of this peculiar, rich and abundant miraculous accom- 
paniment of the Son of man. It surrounds him like the halos the 
old painters cause to radiate around their pictures of 
^^i*^/.^"™?,**" Christ; or as the. space around the infant Jesus in 

01 Christi s 

Miracles. Raphael's Sistine Mado7ina is filled with angel faces. A 
considerable portion of the gospels is occupied with 
accounts of miracles. Thirty-six are described in the gospels, half 
of them repeated in more than one gospel ; so that there are 
sixty-seven reports of distinct miracles, besides the large num- 
ber noticed but not recorded in detail. In spirit, we can see accom- 
panying him, like the invisible twelve legions of angels ever ready at 
his call, or the unseen armies that surrounded Elisha at Dothan, the 
vast multitude of those whom he had healed and saved, — those 
whom he had raised from the dead, those from whom he had cast 
out devils, the blind he had made to see, and the lame that now 
walked, the lepers he had cleansed, the deaf he had caused to hear, 
the sick he had restored to health. 



Library. R. F. Horton's " Cartoons of St. Mark," " The Cartoon 
of Healing "; Trumbull's " Studies in Oriental Social Life, " Calls for 
Healing in the East." 

Whittier's Poems, " Our Master." 

" But warm, sweet, tender, even yet 
A present help is he ; 
And faith has still its Olivet 
And love its Galilee. 

Reference. See on viii. 16, 17. 



These miracles were object lessons, expressing the love and for- 
giveness and comfort from God. Every one was a parable and a 



IV: 25 MATTHEW 11 



25. And there followed him great multitudes of people 
from Galilee, and /rom Decapolis, a.nd/rom Jerusalem, and 
/ram Judea, and /rom beyond Jordan. 



A.I>. 28. 

April and May. 

CALLING THE 

EARLY 

DISCIPLES 



GREAT GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 



sermon. Every one made it easier to trust in 

God and love him. They called the attention ^ 

of the people to the gospel. They rang the bell 

that summoned them to spiritual blessings. And whenever in 

answer to prayer he guides to the right physicians and 

the right means of cure he as really heals men as if he ^iirades 

wrought a miracle of healing. The tree that grows Lessons. 

from the seed is as truly a work of God as if created at 

once by a word. 

" The medical mission is the outcome of the living teachings of 
our faith. I have now visited such missions in many 
parts of the world, and never saw one which was not ^lt'^^^^7 
healmg, helpmg, blessmg, softenmg prejudice, dimm- Bird Bishop. 
ishing suffering . . . telling in every work of love and 
of consecrated skill of the infinite compassion of him who ' came, 
not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.'" — Isabella Bird Bishop. 



Jesus Christ is living now and is working through his people in 
the same directions as when visible on earth. As he promised his 
disciples (John xiv. 12), he is healing more sick, opening 
more blind eyes, binding up more broken-hearted than he an^HealinJ. 
did in Palestine, 1,800 years ago. 

Wherever the Gospel prevails, life is prolonged, many lives are 
saved, hospitals spring up, the sick are cared for, the means of heal- 
ing increased. So in all things the Gospel blesses our lives in 
this world, multiplies comforts and enjoyments, ministers to pros- 
perity, to beauty, to education, to helpful arts. To see this, com- 
pare the Christian with the heatlien world. 

Reference. See on xi. 2. 



25. And THERE FOLLOWED HiM GREAT MULTITUDES.—" Imag- 
ine, if you can, the condition of a country in which there are no 
doctors, where the healing art is only practised by a few quacks, who 
rely more on charms than on physic for their cures. Such is now. 
and such was Palestine in our Lord's day. There, until the medical 



72 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IV: 25 

missionaries were sent by several English societies, there was not a 
physician in the land, and even now there are very few. In such a 
country as this, with sick and crippled in every village, picture the 
eager excitement when the news spread that there is a good physi- 
cian arrived in town; that he has healed a fierce demoniac by a 
word, and a great fever by a touch." — H. D. Tristrajn, D.D,, LL.D., 
in Sunday-School Tzjnes. 



Library. — "The Philanthropies"; "A Colony of Mercy" de- 
scribes what Christianity is doing for all forms of disease in a town 
in Germany ; John Mason's famous sermon on " The Gospel for the 
Poor"; "The Ely Volume" of the A. B. C. F. M.; R. S. Storrs' 
"The Divine Origin of Christianity Indicated by Its Historical 
Effects." 

In the book, "A Colony of Mercy," a saint of olden time was 
taunted with the poverty of his community. In reply he pointed to 
the sick and the suffering and said, " These are my treasures." 



V: I, 2 MATTHEW 73 



CHAPTER V. 



1. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain 
and when he was set, his disciples came unto him : 

2. And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, 



A.». 28. 

SutH77ier. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



Studying the Sermon on the Mount. — 
"Dr. Shedd tells preachers 'to study daily, nightly, 
and everlastingly, the best authors.' The advice 
is good. Just as an ambitious painter will study the Sistine 
Madonna of Raphael, or as an ambitious sculptor will study the 
Moses of Michael Angelo, or an ambitious composer the Ninth 
Symphony of Beethoven, so let the conscientious teacher study de- 
voutly the Sermon on the Mount until he knows it through and 
through, and he will grow wise in winning souls." 

—Rev. John De Witt, D.D. 



The Salon Carre. — The Sermon on the Mount is like the Salon 
Carre, the small room in the Louvre, where are the choicest pictures 
in all that wonderful Palace of Art. The Beatitudes are the choicest 
gems of this Salon Carre. 

Comparisons. — The Sermon on the Mount is Christ's Inaugural 
Address. 

A chart of life, as charts show sailors where to go and what to 
avoid. 

The keynote of this discourse is found in Matt. v. 48 : " Be ye 
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is per- 
fect." 

Christ's Biography. " The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the 
Mount are Christ's biography. Every syllable he had already writ- 
ten down in deeds. He has only to translate his life into language." 

— W. Burnett Wright, D.D. 

The Beatitudes are The Text of the Sermon on the Mount. 
"The Sermon on the Mount," says Andrew Tait, "is like 2^ precious 
stone with many facets. It emits light from all sides." 





IN 


THE GOSPEL, 


.V. 3, 
4, 


lO. 


The kingdom of heaven. 
Comforted. 


5, 
6, 
7, 
8, 
9. 




Inherit the earth. 
Filled. 

Obtain mercy. 
See God. 

Called the Children of 
God. 



74 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V:i, 2 



THE BEATITUDES. 

IN THE REVELATIONS. 

Reigning with Christ, — Rev. iii, 21. 
Personal succor and friendship, — Rev. 

11. 17. 
Power over the nations, — Rev. ii, 26, 
Eating of the Tree of Life, — Rev. ii. 7. 
Not hurt of the second death. — Rev. ii. 11. 
Honored in God's presence. — Rev. iii. 5. 
Bearing His name forever.— Rev. iii. 12. 



A Contrast. — The Ten Commandments are negative, the Beati- 
tudes positive. The one forbids, the other enjoins. The one was 
dehvered on Mount Sinai — cold, bleak, barren, inaccessible — a type 
of merely law morality ; the other on Mount Hattin— built of solid 
rock, but covered with fertile soil, beautiful with shrubs and trees — 
a picture of the morality of the gospel of love. 

At Compound Interest. — I saw not long ago on a gentleman's 
watch-chain a gold coin dated 1600 with some curious inscription of 
the Sons of Malta upon it. He said that if that coin had been put 
at compound interest at six per cent, it would amount now to 125 
millions of dollars. The Beatitudes put at compound interest in our 
hearts and lives will enrich our characters and the world. 



THE REL/TION of THE BEATITUDES TO ONE ANOTHER. 




/ The inn^ life\ ^ _, ^ (Its otitward inanifes-\ 

\ toivardGod. ) ^: ^ke Poor in Spirit. 1^ tation toward m'an. ) 

{The condition out of which all the others grozu.) 

2, They that mourn 3. The meek. 

4. They that hunger after kighteousnkss 5. The mkkcifui,. 

6. The I'Uke in heart 7. The peacemakers. 

Thus shall ye be 

The salt of the earth the light of the world, 

a7td belong to the ki7igdom of heaven. 



Poor in Spirit is the necessary condition, the soil in which the 
others grow. It is " the trunk of the tree, of which the others are 
the branches "; the hall of the house, of which the others are the 
rooms. 



V : 3 MATTHEW 75 



3. Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom 
of heaven. 



A.D. 28. 

Su»nner. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



The first column shows the natural development 
and progress of the inner life. 

The second colimin shows the similar develop- 
ment of the outward life. 

Corresp07idenccs. Each characteristic in the second column is the 
natural expression of its corresponding inner life given in the first 
column. Those that mourn for sin will be meek to sinners. Those 
who hunger to do good will do good in mercy. Those who are pure 
in heart will seek most, and be most successful in, the bringing of 
men to peace in Christ. 

Tests. Those who live such a life in this evil world are often per- 
secuted, and must always be ready to endure this test. Those who 
do stand the test will have these virtues in a high degree, and have 
the fuller blessedness of them all. 

Results. Those who live according to the Beatitudes will help to 
bring the kingdom of heaven on earth. 



3. Blessed are the Poor in Spirit. — "This first Beatitude is 
to the other six almost as the trunk of a tree is to its 
branches ; perhaps it would be more accurate to say, as ^ \^^ ^^ 
the soil is to the plants it feeds." 

— W, B. Wright, in Master and Men. 

"Alexander was accustomed to say, ' Philip of Macedon gave me 
life, but it was Aristotle who taught me how to make the most of 
life.' "— J. R. Miller. 

Blessedness "is the express symbol of a happiness identified 
with character." " The Christian word blessed is full of the light of 
heaven," Happiness is heat reflected from without. Blessedness is 
a fire within that sheds light and warmth whatever the weather out- 
side. 

The Hebrew equivalent in Delitzsch's Hebrew New Testament is 
the same as blessed m. Psa. i. It is in the plural number to express 
the manifold nature of the blessedness at all times, from all sources, 
in all departments of life, in all circumstances ; blessed in body and 
in soul ; in time and in eternity. 



76 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 4 

4. Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be comforted. 

Poor in Spirit. — "The emperor Julian mockingly said that he 
wished to confiscate the property of Christians, in order that, as 
poor men, they might enter the kingdom of heaven." — Am. Com. 



For the rewards promised grow out of the characters to which 

they are attached, as naturally as peaches grow on a 

Nature peach -tree or roses blossom on a rose-bush. There are 

Rewards "^ Other trees on which will grow these blessings, except 

the ones named in the first part of the Beatitudes. 

Grapes will not grow upon thistles. 



4. Comforted, irapaKlrjdijGovTaL^ from irapd and KaMu, to call to one's 

side for aid, advice, or encouragement. 

It is the word from which one title of the Holy Spirit is derived, 

„ ^ . "The Comforter." Our word comfort is derived from 
Comforting. ^ , , 1 , ^ . 

two Latm words, co7i, together, and/(9r/w, strong, made 

stroJtg together. It is not the taking away altogether of sorrow, but 
transforming and transfiguring it, and compelling it to bestow bless- 
ings otherwise impossible. 

Comforted. — " The greatest tragic poet of Greece has left a de- 
scription of the battle of Salamis. The Persian ships, many and 
strong, in double crescent lines, blockaded Piraeus harbor. The 
Athenian vessels, few in number, were crowded within it. When 
the sun had set, the night before the battle, the commanders of both 
fleets went from ship to ship rousing the courage of the soldiers by 
brave words. Doing that, ^schylus called 'comforting' the sol- 
diers." — W. Burnet Wright. 



Library. — Blanco White's sonnet, "Mysterious Night." Long- 
fellow's " Hyperion," where he compares the setting of a great hope 
to the setting of the sun, which reveals a multitude of bright worlds 
unseen before. 

Pearls are said to grow in the pearl oyster from some blow upon 
the shell or from a grain of sand within. "The cutting and irritating 
grain of sand which, by accident or incaution, has got within the 



V:5,6 MATTHEW Y7 



5. Blessed are the meek ; for they shall inherit the earth. 

6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after right- 
eousness : for they shall be filled. 



A.B. 28. 

Sujutner. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



shell, incites the living inmate to secrete, from its 
own resources, the means of coating the intrusive 
substance. And is it not, or may it not be, even 
so with the irregularities and unevenness of health and fortune in 
our own case ? We may turn diseases into pearls. The means and 
materials are within ourselves and the process is easily understood." 

— Coleridge. 

5. Blessed are the Meek. — " ' Meekness has, and must have 
for one of its accompaniments, a temper which is not easily pro- 
voked ; a serenity which is not easily disturbed ; an in- 
disposition to retaliate injuries. These si2:ns of meek- ?."*^^^^? 
1-1 1 1 r 1 , Signs of 

ness — which may also be symptoms of weakness — have Meekness. 

been mistaken for the quality itself,' as the hands of a 
clock have been mistaken for its mainspring ; or iron pyrites has 
been mistaken for gold, because it has the yellow glitter of gold." 

— W. Burnet Wright, 

Meekness lives in the serene heights of an angel dealing with a 
passionate child. " Once when Francis Parkman was alone among 
the Sioux Indians they grew insulting. He knew they meant to 
murder and rob him. But he was not angry ; he was not alarmed. 
He had a few rockets at hand. He knew that the moment he fired 
one of them the savages would take him for a deity. In that con- 
sciousness he was calm." — W. Burttet Wright, 



True meekness is heroic. It means victory over self. It means 
the control of temper and passion, and all the turbulent riot of 
the soul. 

6. Filled, x'^P'^^^^v^^^'^'^^^'-, from xop^og, a pasture then grass, food. 
Hence, to be fed, to be satisfied with food so as to fatten. Thence of 
the man and his desires. 

Hunger after Righteousness.— The greatness of the soul is 
measured by the number, the intensity, and quality of its desires. 
Each desire is a cup which it is possible to fill. The civilized man 



78 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V:/ 



7. Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy. 

is higher than the savage because he has more and better desires. 
He has more strings to his harp, more stops to his organ, and better 
music is possible. The true Christian has still more hungerings, 
and the highest and best of all is to be perfectly righteous, to be 
like God, to have the beauty of holiness, to be free from every stain, 
and sin, and imperfection. 

Unsatisfied Hunger. — All worldly things are vain to satisfy 
the soul. They are like the salt waters of the sea, the more you 
drink the thirstier you are. Alexander conquered the world, and 
then wept for more worlds to conquer. God never made a human 
soul so small that this whole world would satisfy it. 



Growth by Desires and Their Satisfaction. — Life is a series 
of desires and their fulfilment ; and you cannot be satisfied unless 
you first have the desire. All our growth is by means of these 
desires and their satisfaction. We keep hungering for righteousness, 
and the hunger is satisfied. And each time we have a larger vision 
of what righteousness is, and a more heavenly hunger, and then a 
larger, fuller, sweeter satisfaction, the ambrosia and nectar of God. 

7. Mercy is a peculiarly Christian virtue. " It was the Roman 
custom to put the old, sick, and infirm slaves on an island of the 
Tiber, where they were left to perish." — Andrew Tait, 



Library. — See the pictures of cruelty in the Rome of that time, 
in " Quo Vadis,'' and in Farrar's " Darkness to Dawn." 

" The quality of mercy is not strained ; 
It droppeth like the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath : it is twice blessed ; 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes : 
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown ; 
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power 
The attribute to awe and majesty, 
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ; 



V:8 



MATTHEW 



79 



8. Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God. 



A.D. 28. 

Slimmer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



But mercy is above this sceptred sway, 

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings. 

It is an attribute to God himself ; 

And earthly power doth then show likest God's, 

When mercy seasons justice. 

Therefore, Jew, 
Though justice be thy plea, consider this. 
That in the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation : We do pray for mercy ; 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy." — Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, 



8. Pure in Heart. — Trench makes pure correspond with " sim- 
ple " in its original meaning of simplex, sine plica, without fold. It 
is also " sincere," /, e., sine cera, without wax, honey pure without 
any particles of wax. But most modern etymologists derive sin 
from si7n (Latin simiil'), altogether, and cerics from the same root as 
the English sheer, pure, clear ; hence wholly, altogether clear. 



The pure are like white swans swimming down the ^he Swan in 
sewer to whom no speck of defilement clings. Or like the Sewer, 
the lotus leaves which I have seen in muddy water, but Lotus 
always when put under it, coming up perfectly clean, and 
shining brighter under the muddy surface than in the open 
sunlight. 



Library. — Ruskin's 
Help." 



Modern Painters," Vol. V., "The Law of 



What is Purity. — " A thing is pure when there is nothing in it 
out of harmony with its nature. Water is pure, air is pure, when 
they contain only their constituent elements, and in the right pro- 
portion. Gold is pure when it has been separated by fire from all 
foreign matter. The diamond is pure, the crystal is pure, when 
there is nothing in them which hinders the refraction and reflection 
of light. It is thus with the heart, which is the emotional part of 



80 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 8 

the soul. It is pure, when it loves only that which it ought to 
love." — The Abbe Bautain. 

Sunflowers and Wasps. — " The sunflower might say of wasps, 
and hornets, and bees : * Why do they pester me, and so hang 
about } ' and the wasps would reply : * You entertain us, sir ; you 
have what we love.' And so the judge within man, true to his 
heaven-given instinct, makes reply to him pestered by bad thoughts : 
' There's something, sir, about you that these buzzards love ! ' I saw 
by Lake Leman the old castle of Chillon. Up above, the royal, tap- 
estry-hung apartments of the Duke of Savoy and his gay bride ; 
down below, the dungeon where Bonnivard was chained ; where 

creeping things crawl forth to ogle at the visitors, and 
Secret . ° ,5^ , , .. 

Chambers instruments of torture are ; and I wondered if never, m 

of Evil, some scene of revelry above, the groans of martyrs rose 

ChiUon. ^Q g^-j. ^j^g arras on gorgeous walls. There are those we 

meet in social life, the rooms of whose souls which are open to friends 

are fair as a palace. But alas ! who shall tell us of the secret kept 

unseen ? Not so the pure heart. I do not pretend to say that ever 

on this earth we are freed from all solicitations of evil ; but there is 

many a soul so ' blessed ' that, when winged thoughts of sin come 

flying to the windows, God's angel rises up, and draws the shutters to ; 

when disturbing thoughts of hate, revenge, avarice, and pride draw 

near, God's angel meets them at the outer gate, and bids them all 

begone." — E. J. Haynes, D.D. 

They Shall See God. — Referring to one of Fanny Crosby's 

hymns, " Saved by Grace," in the new book, "Sacred Songs, No. i," 

which is used at the meetings, Mr. Moody said that it 

The Hymn: ^as one of best hymns written in the present century. 

Gra e ^ When one remembers that the writer is blind and that 

she has said that she would rather be blind and able to 

write such hymns than to have her eyesight and not be able to write 

them, there is an added pathos to the beautiful sentiment v^hich she 

expresses with such fluency. The following are the first verse and 

chorus of this hymn so highly indorsed : 

" Some day the silver cord will break, 
And I no more as now shall sing ; 
But, oh, the joy when I shall wake, 
Within the palace of the King ! 



V:9 MATTHEW 81 



9. Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall be called the 
children of God. 



And I shall see Him face to face, 
And tell the story — saved by grace ; 

And I shall see Him face to face, 
And tell the story — saved by grace." 



A.D. 28, 

Sujnmer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



Library. — Prof. Drummond's " Natural Law in the Spiritual 
World," where he shows that a lower order of beings can have no 
possible comprehension of a higher. 

Prof. Scripture (Yale) in his book on "Thinking, Feeling, Doing," 
describes his experiments with the color-blind, and those deaf to 
certain sounds. There is a spiritual color-blindness, and tone-deaf- 
ness. Only those whose hearts are pure can see the pure God as 
he really is. 

Compare Prof. Thomson's illustration of " He that hath ears let 
him hear," in his " Parables and their Home," p. 3. 



THE BELL AND THE FLUTE. 

" How will you know the pitch of that great bell. 
Too large for you to stir } — Let but a flute 
Play 'neath the fine-mixed metal : listen close 
Till the right note flows forth, a silvery rill : 
Then shall the huge bell tremble ; — then the mass, 
With myriad waves concurrent, shall respond 
In low soft unison." 

9. Blessed are the Peacemakers. — " No peace was ever won 
from fate by subterfuge or agreement ; no peace is ever in store for 
any of us, but that which we shall win by victory over shame or sin, 
— victory over the sin that oppresses, as well as over that which cor- 
rupts." — Ruskm. 

Library.— Ruskin's " Modem Painters," Vol. V., " Peace," is capi- 
tal. Longfellow's " Arsenal at Springfield." 



The Children of God, because like their Father ; therefore heirs 
of God, of his nature, his home, his joy, his blessing, his love and 
care. 



82 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V: 10, II 



10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake : for theirs is the 
kingdom of heaven. 

11. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you^ and shall say all 
manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 

lo. Blessed are They which are Persecuted for Right- 
eousness' Sake. — One of the strangest things, as we look over the 
past centuries and trace the history of God's people, is the vision of 

so many persecuted ones, so many of the prophets and 

Blessings gaints suffering as martyrs. The sky is full of these 

Persecuted, shining stars. So, standing beside St. John as he gazed 

into heaven, we hear one of the elders saying, " What 
are these which are arrayed in white robes } and whence came they 1 ' 
And he said, " These are they which came out of great tribulation, 
and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb." The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is a picture-gallery of 
these martyr-heroes. But there are many not yet known to history, 
but whose names are recorded in heaven, who in humble homes, in 
retired sick-rooms, in the recesses of their own hearts, have been 
crucified on unseen crosses, and burned with invisible flames, and 
been victors in silent battles, — these, too, belong to the martyrs' 
noble army. 

** These, though their names appear not on the scroll 
Of martyrologists, laid down their life — 
Not less a martyrdom in Jesus' eyes — 
For his dear brethren's sake, watching the couch 
Of loathsome sickness, or of slow decay, 
Or visiting the captive in his cell, 
Or struggling with a burden not their own 
Until their very life-strings wore away — 

These, too, are martyrs, brother." — Bickersteih. 



Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.— Its rewards are theirs, for 
they have been tested as gold tried in the fire. They are to have 
crowns and glories in heaven. Only those who have fought in the 
battle can join in the triumph. Only those who have done well can 
receive the "well done." Only those who have been faithful in the 
little can receive the wider kingdom. 



V: 12, 13 MATTHEW 83 



A.I>. 28. 

Suminer, 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



12. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for g^reat is your reward 
in heaven : for so persecuted they the prophets which were 
before you. 

13. II Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt have lost 
his savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? it is thenceforth good 
for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot 
of men. 

I once saw a small original picture, by a minister's daughter, of a 
faint and fading cross, and over it a bright golden crown. And be- 
neath the picture was written the legend : 

" Bidding my heart look up, not down. 
While the cross fades before the crown." 



13. Ye are the Salt of the Earth. 

(i) Salt Destroying Evil. — "Salt is good to kill trees and 
plants and grass and weeds. Salt will kill a snake or a toad or a 
snail, and in fact will destroy animal life in general. Salt will pre- 
vent fermentation and decay by killing the \\y\v.^ germs which cause 
it. Salt will probably cure almost any germ disease when it can be 
applied to kill the germs." — H. L. Hastings. 

(2) Salt Preserving the Good. — Salt prevents decay in food. 
It is a great preservative, by its very power of destroying evil. 

Salt, the Covenant of. — Salt in the East was a symbol of a 
covenant and of inviolable hospitality. 

" In ' The Rob Roy on the Jordan ' is related an amusing incident 
of the sort. When Macgregor, the captain and entire 
crew of the ' Rob Roy,' was captured with his vessel by ^ ^"r/ * 
the Bedouins of the Upper Jordan, their sheikh, mistak- 
ing some of Macgregor's salt for white sugar, because he had never 
seen salt so white, tasted just the merest speck of it. Finding his 
mistake, he made a wry face of disgust at being thus made a friend 
of Macgregor and disappointed in his hopes of robbing him." 

— Prof. Isaac H. Hall. 

" From * Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish ' a proverb is given and explained 
by considering salt as a figure for the soul of man, or the part of him 
that comes from God in distinction from his parents : * God gives 
the spirit (breath), the soul, the features, the hearing, the organs of 
speech, the gait, the perceptions, the reason, and the intuition. 



84 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : I4-16 

14. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. 

15. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick ; 
and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 

16. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and 
glorify your Father which is in heaven. 

When now the time comes for man to depart out of the world, God 
tak^s his part, and the part which comes from his parents [the body] 
he lays before them.' That also explains this proverb: 'If thou 
takest the salt from the flesh, then thou mayest throw it to the 
dogs.'" — Prof. Isaac H. Hall, in Swiday-School Tiutes. 

The preserving power of the Christian is from God, his spiritual 
nature and character. 

Using the Salt. — " Salt in a barrel is of no use to anybody ; it 
must be brought into contact with the objects which it is to pre- 
serve and to purify." — Theodore L. Cuyler, LL.D. 



If the Salt have Lost his Savor. — " Dr. Thomson tells us 
that a merchant of Sidon, to escape paying a duty to the govern- 
ment, carried off an immense cargo of Cyprus salt and stored it up 
among the mountains in fifty or sixty stone cabins. There were no 
floors to the cabins, and the salt, by lying next to the ground, be- 
came utterly worthless. Bushels of it were shoveled into the road 
and 'trodden under foot of men.' That Sidonian merchant's ex- 
perience with his salt stored away next to the damp ground is full 
of warning to us. Grace is never given to us to be stored away ; it 
will soon lose its pungency unless it is used, and leave us wretchedly 
insipid. Scatter your salt, brother, for 'there is that scattereth 
and yet increaseth.' Jesus will give to thee all the more abun- 
dantly." — Theodore L. Cuyler, LL.D, 



Lost its Savor.— There is a whole sermon in the definitions of 
the Greek word for have lost its savor, fiupavdri, the kindred noun of 
which means first dull, sluggish ; then stupid, silly; then ijisipid, 
fiat. These all describe a Christian who has " lost his savor." 



14-16. "Christians are the light lighted; Christ is the light 
Xx^xXvi^y— Augustine. 



V:l4-l6 MATTHEW 85 



Library. — Phillips Brooks' sermons, " The »5* 

Candle of the Lord," Spurgeon's "Sermons in A.D. 28, 

Candles " is full of illustrations. Summer. 

SERMON 
ON THE 

A man was sent up a dangerous mountain by mount. 

night to light a beacon. His friends, anxiously- 
watching, could not see kz'ni as he went, but they could see the light 
of the lantern that he carried." Men should see not us, but our 
good deeds. 

Pulpit Reflectors. — An aged minister said that he wanted 
most of all pulpit reflectors, that every one should reflect to the 
world the truths preached in the pulpit. The light in our great 
lighthouses is simply a large oil-lamp : why, then, does it send its 
rays so many miles out to sea and penetrate the fog so far.^* Because 
the light is reflected by a large number of glass prisms, which mul- 
tiply and concentrate the light of the central lamp. 



Spreading the Fire. — " As a tree on fire kindles a whole forest 
into a flame, so the apostles, burning with the fire of heaven, have 
set in a blaze the whole world, and have filled it with the light of 
truth and the warmth of charity." — Augustine. 

(2) "The apostles were, as burning coals, scattered throughout 
the nations, blest incendiaries of the world." — Archbishop Leighto7i. 



Dispersion of Light.— The diffusion of light in our world is 
caused by the reflection of the rays of the sun from the particles in 
the air, from the clouds, from the earth and all that is on it. Other- 
wise we could see only the sun, and in all other directions would be 
darkness. Butby the dispersion of light every particle becomes a 
miniature sun, and the world is full of light, even to those who do 
not live in the direct rays of the sun. 



Bunyan's Christian. — " It has been pointed out," says Prof. 
Henry Drummond in " The Programme of Christianity," " as a 
blemish on the immortal allegory of Bunyan that the Pilgrim never 
did anything — anything but save his soul. The remark is scarcely 
fair, for the allegory is designedly the story of a soul in a single rela- 
tion ; and besides he did do a little Christ's conception was 



86 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 14-16 

heavens removed from that of a man setting out from the city of 
Destruction to save his souL It v/as rather that of a man dwelling 
amidst the Destruction of the City, and planning es- 
sayed in capes for the souls of others, escapes not (merely) to 
Order to , , 1 ■, u . • j j • 1 

Save. ^^^ Other world, but to purity and peace and righteous- 
ness in this." Bunyan's object was to save souls, be- 
cause only saved souls could save others. He wanted more lamps 
burning, and his work was to kindle them, that they might kindle 
others, as his whole life showed. In a neighboring city is an im- 
mense electric-light manufactory. If I were describing that, I would 
not tell what the electric light was doing in churches and libraries 
and homes and streets. I would only describe how the lights were 
made, and he would wholly misunderstand the description and the 
factory who should imagine that the factory was an end in itself, 
and not for the very purpose of giving light. Let us not make this 
mistake in thinking of our salvation. We are saved to save others ; 
our hearts are lighted that we may light others. 



The Blind Man and His Lantern. — " I remember hearing, 
some years ago, of a blind man who sat by the wayside with a lan- 
tern near him. When he was asked what he had a lantern for, as 
he could not see the light, he said it was that people should not 
stumble over him The eyes of the world are upon us. I think it 
was George Fox who said, every Quaker ought to light up the coun- 
try for ten miles around him." — D. L. Moody. 



The Light-house Keeper. — "^e you not afraid to live here? 
It is a dreadful place to be constantly in," said a visitor to a light- 
house keeper in his lonely tower. 

" ' No,' replied the man ; ' I am not afraid. We never think of 
ourselves here.' 

" * Never think of yourselves ! How is that ? ' 

" ' We know that we are perfectly safe, and only think of having 
our lamps burning brightly, and keeping the reflectors clear, so that 
those in danger may be saved.' " — H. L. Hasimgs, in The Christian, 



Three Kinds of Light Rays.— The rays of the sun are of three 
kinds, different from one another probably only as to the length of 
the waves of which they are composed. 



V:i4-i6 MATTHEW 87 



(i) Light Rays. White sunlight is really com- 



A.D. 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



posed of thousands of colors, shades, and tints, 
which fill the world with beauty. Such variety is 
in the pure light from Christ, reflected from, our 
manifold natures, needs, and circumstances. The 
light drives away darkness, shows the way, makes 
clear heaven, goodness, God, the future ; it fills 
the world with beauty and glory. 

(2) Heat Rays. Nearly all the heat in the world comes directly 
or indirectly from the sun. The fires that warm us and that are the 
source of power are from the wood or coal in which the heat of the 
sun has been stored. Such is God's love to us in Jesus Christ, 
bringing cheer, warmth, and blessing. 

(3) Chemical Rays, which, act upon plants, and cause the move- 
ments of life. These rays are in a sense the source of life, the instru- 
mentality of life. So Christ is the source of our spiritual life. Light, 
love, and life all come from him, as the bringer of light and truth 
from the Father of light. Now all these kinds of light are to be 
reflected by the Christian upon the world. By word and by deed he 
is to shed abroad light, and beauty and comfort and life ; and there- 
by glorify his Father in heaven. 



Giving Light. — " What a man gives out, not what he keeps, 
determines his appearance in the eyes of the world. Beauty, bright- 
ness, color, consist not in what a thing keeps but in what it gives 
out. A well-known law of optics teaches us that a thing is seen, 
not in the color which it takes in and* keeps, but in that color which 
it gives back again. The thing that we call red is the one which is, 
in one sense, blue ; that is, it takes in the blue rays and keeps them 
for itself, but gives back the red ones in color. Gold has kept all 
the green rays, and given back the yellow ones, so we think it is yel- 
low. The object which we call black takes in every ray of light, and 
keeps them for itself, and we have strikingly enough seen in it the 
symbol of all evil. The object which we call white keeps nothing 
of the sun's rays, but gives them all out again, and we have seen in 
it the symbol of all good. So a man is seen and known, not by 
what he receives and keeps for himself, but for what he gives forth 
to others. The rich man who keeps everything for himself is seen 
and known to be a poor, mean man. The wise man who holds 



88 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : I4-16 

haughtily his learning to himself will, in the judgment of men, be 
very apt to seem a proud fool. We are not what we take and keep 
and have, we are what we give. 

* Measure thy life by loss instead of gain, 
Not by the wine drunk, but by the wine poured forth. 
For life's strength standeth in life's sacrifice. 
And whoso gives the most has most to give.' " 

— Sunday-School Times. 



The Lost Pane in a Light-house.— At one time in a great 
storm one of the panes of glass in a Florida light-house was broken, 
and a piece of tin was nailed up in its place, casting a broad shadow 
over the sea. And it is said that some vessels were lost, because 
while sailing in this shadow they could not see the light. 



"Lights Bright and All is Well."— "This is the lookout 
cry on the Mediterranean steamers, as their mighty engines drive 
through the deep, bearing hundreds of passengers to their destined 
port. ' Lights bright and all is well,' cries the man on the lookout ; 
and the word is caught up by one and another until it echoes through 
the ship." — H. L. Hastings. 



Frozen Lamps. — Dr. McVicar, of Montreal, once said that in the 
Northern part of China, at his boarding-house, he was given a lamp 
that burned well for a short time, and then grew dim. He sent for 
the landlord, who took it away, and soon returned with the same 
lamp shining brightly. Again it grew dim. Why ? He learned 
that the oil was frozen. Taken to the fire it was thawed a little at a 
time and burned well, but only the melted oil would burn. Cold 
Christians cannot shine brightly. 



16. Let your Light so Shine. — How can we let our light shine, 
and at the same time be secret as to our giving and praying ? 

" Distinguish between doing right in order to help others, as when 
one lights a beacon in order to guide the sailor ; and doing right in 
order to be praised by others, as when one stands in the full blaze of 
a chandelier in order to display his own jewelry. It is one thing to 
shine for the sake of illuminating others, and so helping them ; it is 



V:i7 MATTHEW 



17. T Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the 
prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 

another thing to shine for the sake of illuminating 
ourselves, and so be seen to advantage." 

— Boardjnaji, 
Reference. See on vi. 1-4. 



A.D. 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



17. Not to Destroy, but to Fulfil. — When a bell is made, 
two moulds of sand are made, an inner and an outer, 
so arranged as to form between them precisely the shape ^Ij® ^f^ 
desired for the bell. The metal is poured in, and then 
the moulds are broken. But that form is not destroyed, it is only 
fulfilled, and the bell rings out the glad song of fulfilment. 



Evil of Destroying without Fulfilling.— The true reform- 
er is one who gives his attention chiefly to building up better things, 
not to destroying the old. It is easy to find fault. It requires neither 
talent nor goodness to tear down ; it requires both to build up. De- 
stroying all the weeds in a field is of little account, unless good seed 
is planted ; and the weeds are best destroyed in the act of culturing 
the good crop. 

Sahara is a region where there is destroying without fulfilling. A 
garden, an orchard, a park, are places where the seeming destruction, 
as of weeds and wild growth, and uneven surfaces, permitted the 
real fulfilment. 

Comparisons. — " ' As the shell breaks when the bird is hatched ; 
as the sheath withers when the bud bursts into leaf ; as the rough 
« sketch is done with when the picture is finished ; as the toys of boy- 
hood are laid by in adolescence,' — so the system of law, which is 
preparatory only, is superseded, not repealed or destroyed ; and this 
just in the proportion in which the individual, the community, or 
the race comes into a moral state in which it no longer needs to be 
commanded and forgiven (Gal. iii. 24, 25 ; iv. 1-6)." — Abbott. 



The full-blown rose does not destroy, but fulfils the rose-bud. 
The oak does not destroy, but fulfils the acorn. The tulip fulfils 
the bulb. The butterfly fulfils the caterpillar. The college fulfils 
the school. The man fulfils the boy. 



90 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V:!/ 

Christ Fulfilling the Law. — "Did Christ come to abolish 
the ten commandments? No ; what Christ has done is simply this : 
he has, if I may so say, wrought steam power wherewith to drive all 
the moral machinery of that splendid machine, the ten command- 
ments. It was standing idle for want of power and he came to drive 
it. He did not come to abolish the law. ' Nay,' said he, ' 1 am here 
to fulfil it, to set it a-working again.' " — John McNeill, D.D. 



Chalmers' Kilmany Experience. — Christ fulfilling the law is 
well illustrated by Dr. Chalmers' experince at Kilmany. He preached 
the law and morality with all the eloquence of his being. But in his fare- 
well address he bears this testimony : " I never heard of 

la mers ^ such reformations being effected among them in this 
Experience. ^ , 

way. I am not sensible that all the vehemence with 

which I urged the virtues and proprieties of social life had the 

weight of a feather on the moral habits of my parishioners." Dr. 

Chalmers, while at Kilmany, was truly converted to Christ; and then, 

when he preached the love and atonement of Christ, he again bears 

witness that by this he found that men obeyed the moral law, and 

he declares, " You have at least taught me that to preach Christ is 

the only effective way of preaching morality in all its branches." 

(Wayland's "Life of Chalmers," pp. 39-42.) Every true revival 

bears the same testimony. 



Three Kinds of Churches. — In one of the early numbers of 
the Atlantic MontJily a writer divides churches into three classes : 
(i) The Chicrch Ter7Jiaga7it, forever scolding and finding fault, like 
the deacon who gave as' his chief qualification for the office that he 
could object; (2) The Church Militant, sometimes fighting other 
churches as if they were enemies, but ever in a martial frame of 
mind, fighting evil everywhere. And this is one great function of 
the church, so long as an evil remains to be destroyed. But that 
church is most effective in this work, which belongs also and most 
fully to (3) The Church Beneficent, or Constructant, building up the 
good, planting good seed, encouraging the virtues, and abounding in 
every good word and work. 



Library. — There are many helpful illustrations on these verses in 
Whately's " Annotations " on Bacon's essays, " Innovations.'' 



V:i7 MATTHEW 91 



Applications. — There are many applications 
of this principle. Christ fulfils Nature, giving it a 
new meaning and power. Wordsworth says : 



A.U. 28. 

Suiumer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



"I'd rather be 
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn ; 

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn, — 

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea. 
And hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." 

The old Greeks did illuminate nature, but Christ did infinitely more 
for it. Instead of dryads and nymphs and fairies. He has peopled 
nature with living truths, with God's angels of light and comfort. 
Every cloud and star and flower is a divine messenger. Fields and 
brooks, rain and snow, bring promises and hopes from God. Com- 
pare Whittier's " The Chapel of the Hermits," and Mrs. Browning's 

" Earth's crammed with heaven 
And every earthly bush afire with God.'' 



The Flag that was Fulfilled.— When the regiment carried 
its flag into battle again and again till they brought it home all 
tattered and stained and torn, and locked it up in a glass case in the 
State house, they did not destroy that flag but fulfilled it. They 
filled it full of meaning. This rent says " Antietam "; that bullet- 
hole says " Gettysburg "; every stain and tatter and shred shout 
"Heroism," '* Loyalty," "Freedom," " Courage," " Victory," till no 
flag though woven with rays of dawning gold is so precious or so full 
of meaning and glory. 

" There is a dogma of the ancient sages. 
No noble human thought, 
However buried in the dust of ages. 
Can ever come to nought. 

"With kindred faith that knows no back direction, 
Beyond the sages' scope 
I see afar the final resurrection 
Of every glorious hope. 



92 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V: 18,19 

18. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall 
in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 

19, Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall 
teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever 
shall do and teach them^ the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 

*' I see as parcel of a new creation, 
The Beatific hour 
When every bud of lofty aspiration 

Shall blossom into flower." — John G. Saxe. 



18. One Jot or one Tittle.— "Jot, iz^ra-^ Tittle, Kepa/a. Jot\?> 
ioTj'od (i), the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Tittle is the 
little bend or point which serves to distingish certain Hebrew letters 
of similar appearance, as "l (D) from 1 (R), or 3 (K) from n (B). 
The guilt of changing those little hooks which distinguish between 
certain Hebrew letters is declared to be so great, that if such a thing 
were done, the world would be destroyed." — M. R. Vincent. 

In the Hebrew Bible are over 66,000 jots. 



Shoe-pegs and Ships. — " In a shipyard the other day I saw sev- 
eral men working carefully under the bottom of a vessel which was 
nearly ready to be launched. I was surprised to find that they were 
driving shoe-pegs into the planks. What was this for .? On looking 
more closely it was easy to find the reason. In the hard wood 
planks were many small worm-holes, which will not swell up in the 
water, and there are so many that they would combine to make a 
serious leak in the ship if not filled up." — Rev. Joel Ives, 



Comma for a Hyphen. — "Among the first years that I was in 

Congress a little incident occurred that forcibly illustrates the value 

of exactness even in the most minute details. In a tariff bill that 

became a law that winter one of the sections "enumer- 

Costofa ated what articles should be admitted free of duty. 

' ^^ . Among the articles specified were all * foreign fruit- 
Change ma ° r 

Tariff Bill, plants,' meaning plants imported for transplanting, pro- 
pagation, or experiment. The enrolling clerk, in copy- 
ing the bill, accidentally changed the hyphen in the compound word 
'fruit-plants' to a comma, making it read 'all foreign fruit, plants,' 
and so forth. As a result of this carelessness, for a year or until 



MATTHEW 93 



20. For I sav imto von, That except vour righteousness shall 
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall 
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. 



A.I>. 28. 

Sum>::er. 
SEKMOX 
ON THE 
MOUXT. 



Congress could remedy the blunder, all the oranges, 

lemons, bananas, and other foreign fruits were 

admitted free of duty. It was only a little mistake, 

but it cost the government not less than two million dollars 

Rather a costly comma." — Sunday-School Times. 



A Zinc Patch and the Crimean War.—" A little zinc patch 
of repairs on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem * was 
the occasion of the Crimean War.' The roof of the dome leaked, 
and the Latin Church proposed to repair it. The Greek Church 
objected, saying that such a thing would seem to assume ownership 
of the edifice. It was their own province, being the largest and 
most powerful, and, moreover, having their shrine under the dome 
nearest the dropping, to cover up the obnoxious holes. Then the 
Latins objected, and a further strife rose as to the use of some keys 
to the more sacred chapels. The quarrel waxed so fierce that Rus- 
sia, as the patron of the Greek Church, stepped in and offered to 
make repairs, and also took up the key question. Then France, as 
the patron of the Latin Church, had something to say. And the Turks 
sat quiet between the parties, controlling the building, but not keep- 
ing out the winter rain. Ever\thing became complicated. New issues 
were raised. The Russians began to order the Turks, and the Turks, 
as usual, refused to obey. The French agreed to be on the Turks' 
side. War was declared, and England was persuaded to join the 
French to help the Turks. So an army went to the Crimea to be- 
siege Sevastopol. Meantime the Turks repaired the building, and 
(we believe") the French paid for it ; at any rate, somebody did be- 
sides the Turks. And any one can see the blue zinc afar off on the 
round dome, and can do just as much thinking about the miserable 
controversy as he pleases." — C. S. Robinson, LL.D. 



20. In no Case Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. — This 
exclusion is not arbitrarj-, but from the necessity of the case. Those 
who will not learn to sing are excluded from the choir, Exclusion 
and those who refuse to learn to play, from the orchestra ; »ot 
not from any arbitran,- decree, but because they make it ^itrary. 
impossible for themselves to belong. Putting them in the seats or 



94 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V:2I, 22 



21. T[ Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill ; and 
whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment : 

22. But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause 
shall be in danger of the judgment : and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, 
shall be in danger of the council : but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in 
danger of hell fire. 

giving them an instrument will not make them a part of choir or 
orchestra. 

So those who have not the heavenly spirit and life cannot enter 
heaven ; and no beautiful place and golden harp can by any means 
make them a part of heaven. And no outward form can make them 
belong to the kingdom of heaven without their possessing the spirit 
which is the essence of that kingdom. It is the same with the king- 
dom of knowledge. 

Library. — The booklet," The Sister's Dream of Heaven " (Knowles, 

New York). 

21. Said by Them of Old Time.— A saying is not always good 
or true because it is old. This reminds one " of the supposed 
ancient shield which had been found by the antiquary, 
'^^SMelf ""* Martinus Scriblerus, and which he highly prized, en- 
a Pot Lid. crusted as it was with venerable rust. He mused on the 
splendid appearance it must have had in its bright new- 
ness, till one day an over-sedulous housemaid having scoured off the 
rust, it turned out to be merely an old pot lid." — Arbp. Whately, 
p. 12 of Preface to Annotatio7is. 



11. But I SAY UNTO You.— Men are apt to feel that whoever 
sweeps away the cobwebs is tearing down the ceiling ; and whoever 
takes down the ancient scaffolding is destroying the house. 

In the great old church of Verona was a bas-relief, a beautiful work 
of the 15th century. For some reason it was covered with mastic 
and hidden for more than one hundred years, and entirely forgotten. 
In 1630 an earthquake shook of the mastic, and revealed the life of 
Christ in its ancient beauty. A similar experience occurred in the 
church of Santa Croce in Florence, where Giotto's pictures were cov- 
ered up by the Medici, but rediscovered in 1863. 

Sidney Smith, in one of his addresses, tells us of a laborer who lived 
near his parsonage, " of such superior abilities and character that he 



V:23 MATTHEW 95 



23. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there 
rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee ; 



A.D. 28. 

Sumtner. 
SEEMOX 
OX THE 
MOUXT. 



laid up considerable money, and was growing rich. 

But it happened that he had been for a long time 

with stomachic pains for which he found no relief, ^ ^ 

and which were the bane and torment of his life. 

" Now, were that man to send for a physician to consult him about 
his malady, what would he think if the doctor should 
say, ' My good friend, you surely will not be so rash as to Sidney 
attempt to get rid of those pains in your stomach ! Have story, 
you not grown rich with those pains there ? Has not 
your situation improved every year.^ You surely will not be so in- 
discreet as to part with those pains } ' 

" 'Monster of rhubarb !' the man would reply, ' I am not rich in 
consequence of those pains, but in spite of them. And I would have 
been richer, and a thousand times happier if I had had no pains in 
my stomach at all.' " 

22. AxGRY — SHALL SAY. — Expressing feelings by word or act tends 
to increase the feeling, and make it permanent in the character. 
If you prevent a tree from expressing its inner life in 

leaves and fruit, the tree will die. The tree grows by ^ o'^^^o 

=* -' Expressiom 

means of the outward expression. So we gain a vic- 
tor}'- over angr}' passions by keeping them from outward expression. 
On the other hand, pity for the poor, unless expressed by word and 
deed, tends to harden and deaden the heart. 



Sayixgs. — "Anger is a brief madness." 

" Anger wishes (like Nero) that all mankind had one neck ; love, 
that it had only one heart." — Richter. 

" Angry men ' turn bees, and leave their lives in the wound.' " 
" Animasque in vulnere ponunt." 



Library. — Whately's "Annotations," "Anger"; Coleridge's Poems, 
some lines in " Christabel." 

22. Hell Fire, r^v yk^wav rov rrvpoc, the Gehenna of fire. Gehenna 
is a compound of Ge (land) and Hinnom, a deep, narrow glen south 



96 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS " V : 24 



24, Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy 
brother, and then come and offer thy gift. 

of Jerusalem. On the brow overlooking the valley Solomon erected 
high places for Molech (I. Kings xi. 7), and in the glen 
'^^^ Ahaz and Manasseh made their children " pass through 
of Fire. ^^^ fire," and " the fiendish custom of infant sacrifice 
seems to have been kept up." This place also "became 
the common refuse-place of the city, into which the bodies of crimi- 
nals, carcasses of animals, and all sorts of filth were cast." "It be- 
came the common cesspool of the city." The fire that burned up 
this refuse was kept perpetually burning, and the smoke continually 
ascended. 

"The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 
And black Gehenna called, the type of hell." — Milton, 

Thus the place became a fit symbol of the punishment of sin, the 
refuse and corruption of the soul, of the sinner who has become un- 
fit to dwell with his fellows on account of his vileness and evil- 
breeding, contaminating power. It is a type, too, of the sinful soul 
itselL 

24. First be Reconciled.— For an illustration of the necessity 
of being reconciled to man before we can trul}^ worship God, see 
Coleridge's " Rime of the Ancient Mariner," part iv., and the two 
stanzas preceding the last two in part vii. : 

" I looked to heaven and tried to pray ; 
But e'er ever a prayer had gusht 
A wicked whisper came and made 
My heart as dry as dust." .... 

" A spring of love gushed from my heart 
^'^® And I blessed them unaware." .... 



Ancient 
Mariner. 



That self same moment I could pray. 

He prayeth well who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast; 

He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small ; 

For the dear God who loveth us, 
He made and loveth all." 



V: 25-32 MATTHEW 97 



A.B. 28. 

Stimnter, 
SEEMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



25. Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the 
way with him ; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to 
the judge, and the judge dehver thee to the officer, and thou 
be cast into prison. 

26. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out 
thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing, 

27. T[ Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, 
Thou shalt not commit adultery : 

28. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath 
committed adultery with her already in his heart. 

29. And if thy right eye ofiFend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee : for it is 
profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole 
body should be cast into hell. 

30. And if thy right hand oiTend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee : for it is 
profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole 
body should be cast into hell. 

31. It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writ- 
ing of divorcement : 

32. But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the 
cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery : and whosoever shall marry her 
that is divorced committeth adultery. 

25. The Officer, virripeTri a servant, or under officer. " This word 
presents a good example of the influence of the gospel in lifting 
words into higher and purer associations. Formed with the verb 
kpecGG), to row, it originally signified a rower, as distinguished from a 
soldier in a war-galley. This word for 2i galley-slave comes at last in 
the hands of Luke and Paul to stand for the noblest of all officers, 
that of a minister of the Lord Jesus (Luke i. 2 ; Acts xxvi. 16 ; L Cor. 
iv. I)." — M. R. Vmcejii. 

27-32. Library. — Juvenal " Satires," xii. 209: 

" Scelus intra se tacitus qui cogitat ullum 
Facti crimen habet." 

'* Who in his breast a guilty thought doth cherish, 
He bears the guilt of action." 



The City of False Pleasure.— The seventh commandment 
thus interpreted by Christ is a wall around the family, the city of 
true love, with its homes, its children, its heavenly life of love, — the 
type of the city of God. This wall defends the home against the 
demons of selfishness, the dragons of sensual love and divorce, the 



98 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 33 

33' H Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shall 
not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths : 

Storms of vile literature, the armies of evil thoughts and bad com- 
panions. 

It is also a wall to keep men from entering another city, the city 
of False Pleasure, the city of Destruction, from which Bunyan's Pil- 
grim fled. In its centre is a burning whirlwind of flame, filled with 
diseases, remorse, and death. This vortex of fiery evils is hidden 
from the sight of those without by being surrounded with palaces of 
sensual delight, magnificent temples of lust, brilliant saloons of in- 
toxicating drinks, conversation halls of lewd stories, libraries of ob- 
scene literature, debasing theatres, obscene pictures, all kindling the 
fires of evil thoughts. And the flames within so light up these pleas- 
ure palaces that they seem often like the heavenly towers and golden 
spires of true joy, and many are attracted by them to their ruin. It 
is against these avenues and enticements, which lead to the awful hell 
unseen within, that teachers need most to warn their scholars by 
means of these verses. And they should note specially that most 
sinful and dangerous pleasures have two sides, — one for argument, 
the other for practice. They are like the dome of St. Peter's on 
festival days, — brilliantly lighted toward the city of Rome, but all 
darkness toward the country without. 



THE BELL OF THE ANGELS. 

It is said that in heaven at twilight a great bell softly swings, 

And man may listen and hearken to the wondrous music that 

rings. 
If he put from his heart's inner chamber all the passion, pain, and 

strife. 
Heart-ache and weary longing that throb in the pulses of life — 
If he thrust from his soul all hatred, all thoughts of wicked things — 
He can hear in the holy twilight how the bell of the angels rings. 

So, then, let us ponder a little — let us look to our hearts and see 
If the twilight bell of the angels could ring for you and me. 

— Atla7ita Constitution, 

Evil Thoughts.— " You can't prevent the devil from shooting 
arrows of evil thoughts into your heart ; but take care that you do 



V : 34-39 Matthew 99 



A.D. 28. 

SuJinner. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



34. But I say unto you, Swear not at all ; neither by heaven ; 
for it is God's throne : 

35. Nor by the earth ; for it is his footstool : neither by 
Jerusalem ; for it is the city of the great King. 

36. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst 
not make one hair white or black. 

37. But let your communication be, Yea, yea ; Nay, nay : 
for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. 

38. H Ye liave heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for 
a tooth. 

39. But I say unto you. That ye resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on 
thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 

not let such arrows stick fast and grow there. Do as a good old 
man of past time has said : ' I can't prevent a bird from flying over 
my head, but I can prevent him from making a nest in my hair.' " 

^ — Luther. 

34. Swear Not at All. — " What does Satan pay you for swear- 
ing ? " said a gentleman to one whom he heard using 
profane language. Cheap Pay 

" He don't pay me anything," was the reply. or^^wear- 

" Well, you work cheap,— to lay aside the character 
of a gentleman, to inflict so much pain on your friends and civil 
people, and to risk losing your own soul, and all for nothing, — you 
certainly do work cheap — very cheap indeed !" 



The Evil of Profanity.— Men always lose faith in that which 
they take lightly on their tongues. And this is the reason why God 
holds up the Third Commandment, " Thou shalt not take the name 
of the Lord thy God in vain." This is the deadly nature of profan- 
ity. Because to take God's name in vain is to raise up an army of 
doubts. Oaths are like the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus of old, 
from them spring a harvest of armed giants of doubt and unbelief. 
There is no possible way in which you can make God seem a myth, 
an unreality, and destroy his power over men, more easily than by 
taking His name lightly on the lips. 



39 Resist not Evil. — " A modem philosopher, Mr. J. S. Mill, 
has said that Christ, in giving such instructions, had done wonders 
for the ideal of humility and charity in the world, but had failed to 
inculcate manliness and that courage which was so amply developed 



100 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 4O-43 

40. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have 
thy cloak also. 

41. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 

42. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn 
not thou away. 

43. TT Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate 
thine enemy. 

by the laws of medieval chivalry. Mill thought, therefore, that the 
Christian ideal was one-sided, and required to be supplemented by 
the warlike type, which resents insult, and challenges the aggressor 
to defend himself. Bravery is of all qualities that which most attracts 
the human race ; and Mill imagined that the Christian ideal without 
correction would have weakened this quality in men 
Heroism of |^ directing them to accept insults without resenting 

Non-resist- / 
ance. them. 

" Such an argument can only be plausible to those 
who are ignorant of early Christian history. The one feature which 
stands out prominently in the society founded by Christ and his 
apostles is the extraordinary heroism which was shown in the face 
of death and tortures, not only by men, but by feeble women and 
tender children. It amazed the heathen magistrates, who were 
striving after fortitude by the aid of philosophy. It amazed the 
wild savages, who mistook gentleness for cowardice, when they 
found that it was harder to terrify the missionary who came with 
the gospel than the invader who came in battle array. Any critic, 
therefore, who says that this word of our Lord tends to make men 
unmanly, can be silenced by an appeal to countless deeds of hero- 
ism done by Christians because they were the faithful servants of 
Christ." — Prof. J. P. Mahaffy, Ph.D., in Sunday-School Times. 



Russian Soldiers and Napoleon.—" In a recent book of me- 
moirs upon the great wars of Napoleon, it is noticed, as the most 
wonderful heroism on the part of the Russian infantry, that when 
ordered to march past a French position, and on no account to fight, 
they submitted to taunts and challenges, nay even to wounds and 
death, without flinching from their march. They were more heroic, 
because they did not fight, than if they had turned with fury upon 
the foe. So it may be with any Christian in his campaign under the 
banner of Christ. For himself he is nothing, he can only show devo- 
tion. But as a soldier of Christ, he is a hero; for he serves a Master 
greater and nobler than any other soldier can claim."— Pr^. Mahaffy. 



V:44-4^ MATTHEW 101 



A.D. 28. 

Sunnner. 
SERMON 
OX THE 
MOUNT. 



44. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that 
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them 
that despitefuUy use you, and persecute you ; 

45. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in 
heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the e\dl and on the good 
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 

46. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have 
ye ? do not even the publicans the same ? 

Library. — In Arvine's " Religious Anecdotes " are two capital 
true stories bearing on this subject, — " William Ladd and his Neigh- 
bor" 150 (/) ; and "A Christian Colony" 160 {h). Note also the 
Bishop in " Les Miserables." 

44. Love Your Enemies. 

** Learn from yon Orient shell to love thy foe, 
And strew with pearls the hand that brings thee woe ; 
Free, like yon rock, from base, vindictive pride. 
Emblaze with gems the wrist that rends thy side. 
Mark where yon tree rewards the stony shower 
With fruit nectareous or the balmy flower. 
All nature calls aloud, ' Shall man do less 
Than heal the smiter and the railer bless ? ' " 

— Hafiz, translated by Sir William Jones. 



Library. — Hugh Miller's " My Schools and Schoolmasters," the 
origin of pearls by a blow on the shell. 



" The clubbed tree gives its fruit ; the cleft wood perfumes the 
ax ; the ground gem shows its beauty." — Bp, H. W. Warre7i. 

How TO Destroy Enemies. — " It is recorded of a Chinese em- 
peror that, on being apprised of his enemies having raised an insur- 
rection in one of the distant provinces, he said to his officers, ' Come, 
follow me, and we will quickly destroy them.' He marched forward, 
and the enemy submitted upon his approach. All now thought that 
he would take the most signal revenge, but were surprised to see the 
captives treated with mildness and humanity. ' How ! ' cried the 
first minister, ' is this the manner in which you fulfil your promise } 
Your royal word was given that your enemies should be destroyed ; 
and behold, you have pardoned them all, and even caressed some of 



102 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS V : 47-48 



47. And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others ? do not 
even the pubUcans so ? 

48. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. 

them.' ' I promised,' replied the emperor, ' to destro)^ my enemies. 
I have fulfilled my word ; for see, they are enemies no longer. I 
have made friends of them.' " — Christian Union. 



Library. — Plato's " Crito," 49 ; De Quincey's " Essay on the 
Poets ; " Lowell's Poems, " The Vision of Sir LaunfaL' 
Reference— xxvii. 19. 

What insight breathes through the sigh which St. Teresa uttered 
even for Satan, when she said, " Poor wretch ! he is miserable be- 
cause he cannot love." 

44. Do Good to Them that Hate You.—" To return evil for 
good is devilish ; to return good for good is human ; to return good 
for evil is godlike." — An Old Spanish Writer. 



47. What do Ye More than Others? — See William Seeker's 
" Nonesuch Professor," " Why should a Christian do more than 
others } " 

Overcoming Evil with Good. — To fight evil with evil is simply 
to make two evils instead of one. And both evils are increased by 
the processes. Even if the good fails in overcoming the evil in 
others, yet it is itself strengthened and increased by the effort, and 
therefore the proportion of good to evil is increased. Like kindles 
like, as fire kindles fire. The tendency of good is to awaken the 
good in other souls. The sunlight brightens and beautifies whatever 
it shines on. Every particle of dust even reflects the light. This is 
the divine way. God's love in Jesus Christ is the transforming power 
in the world. 

Library. — The Expulsive Power of a New Affection, in Chal- 
mers' " Astronomical Sermons." 



48. Perfect Even as Your Father. — The lamp, though infi- 
nitely smaller than the sun, shines with perfect light. Every color, 
every power of the sunbeam may shine in the candle ray. The image 
on the retina of the eye may be a perfect picture in every detail of a 
landscape that extends over many miles. 



VI : I, 2 MATTHEW 103 



CHAPTER VL 



A.D. 28. 

SufHfner. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

HORNS OP 
HATTIN. 



1. Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be 
seen of them : otherwise ye have no reward of your Father 
which is in heaven. 

2, Therefore when thou doest thine ahns, do not sound a 
trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagog:ues 
and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I 
say unto you, They have their reward. 

1. "To some of us, to very many, it may seem the sermon might 
well be on a Mount that set forth such a text as this. " 

— Francis Jacox. 

2. Sound a Trumpet. — Some think that the figure was " sug- 
gested by the trumpets of the Temple Treasury, the thirteen trum- 
pet-shaped chests to receive the contributions of the worshippers 
(see Luke xxi. 1-4)." — M. R. Vincent. 



" Do not make a trumpet of the box. It looks like one, but do 
not use it for the purpose of calling attention to what you are about 
to put in it." — Joseph Parker. 

2. As THE Hypocrites Do. — It is the height of folly to judge the 
whole church by the hypocrites that may be in it. Spurgeon tells 
this story : " An American gentleman said to a friend, ' I wish you 
would come down to my garden, and taste my apples.' He asked 
him about a dozen times, but the friend did not come ; and at last 
the fruit-grower said, * I suppose you think my apples are good for 
nothing, so you won't come and try them } ' * Well, to , 

tell the truth,' said the friend, ' 1 have tasted them. As story, 
I went along the road, I picked one up that fell over the " Come in- 
wall, and I never tasted anything so sour in all my life ; side." 
and I do not particularly wish to have any more of your fruit.' 
' Oh,' said the owner of the garden, ' I thought it must be so. Those 
apples around the outside are for the special benefit of the boys. I 
went fifty miles to select the sourest sorts to plant all round the orch- 
ard, so the boys might give them up as not worth stealing ; but, if 



104 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 3 



3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand 
death: 

you will come inside, you will find that we grow a very different 
quality there, sweet as honey.' " Those who judge the church by 
its worst members make the same mistake. 

Reference. On Hypocrites. See under xxiii. 13. 



3. They have their Reward.— Some one said to a wicked 

man, " You do not look as if you had prospered by your wickedness." 

" I have not," he replied. " I have met with all manner 

~f „ .^'^® of misfortunes. I have twice been in state's prison; 

of Beiug . . . r- ' 

Wicked. ^^^ ^ ^^^^ jou, my worst punishment is in d^m^- what I 
am" So, on the other hand, the greatest reward of good- 
ness is not an angel's harp or crown, or to walk the golden streets, 
but to be like an angel, to have the heavenly character. 



Library. — Rogers' " Greyson Letters," " The Fit Punishment of 
Hypocrisy," is very shrewd and interesting; the punishment consist- 
ing in being compelled unceasingly not only to speak, but to act 
according to the virtue they simulate. 



3. Let not thy Right Hand know what thy Left Hand 
DOETH. — Augustine likens those who boast of their good deeds to 
the foolish hen, who has no sooner laid her tgg than, by her cack- 
ling, she calls some one to take it away. 

" Like the subterraneous flue that warms my myrtles, he does 
good and is unseen." 

" And though in act unwearied, secret still. 
As in some solitude the summer rill 
Refreshes, where it winds, the faded green. 
And cheers the drooping flowers, itself unseen." — Cowper. 

Library.— J acox's "Secular Annotations on Scripture Texts," 
Vol. I., 259, "The open Right-hand's Secret from the Left." 



VI : 4, 5 MATTHEW 105 



4. That thine ahns may be in secret : and thy Father which 
seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. 

5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites 
are : for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in 
the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily 
I bay unto you, They have their reward. 



A.D. 28. 

Sumtner. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

HORNS^ OF 
HATTIN. 



Compare " Peter of Aragon's famous refusal to let Pope Martin IV. 
know what were his designs against the infidel. Peter implored the 
blessing of the Holy Father on his scheme of action ; * but if he 
thought his right hand knew his secret, he would cut it off, lest it 
should betray it to his left.' "—Jacox. 



4. Seeth in Secret. — Compare the Kathode or X-rays. 



4. Shall Reward thee Openly. — " Dante, describing the an- 
gels whom he met, in the Paradiso, impresses us at once with their 
external glory, and their spiritual effulgence. Invariably he makes 
the former the result of the latter." The angel 

" Became a thing transcendent in my sight 
As a fine ruby smitten by the sun." 



Library. — Joseph Cook's Monday Lectures, " Conscience," " So- 
lar Self-Culture." 

Compare. — Stephen's shining countenance ; and that of Moses 
when he came down from the Mount. 



" Charity ever 
Finds in the act reward, and needs no trumpet 
In the receiver." 



" Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.' 



5. Pray Standing in the Corners of the Streets. 

Library. — Dr. Trumbull's " Studies in Oriental Social Life," 
" Prayers and Praying in the East "; the booklet, " Expectation 
Corner," the best extended illustration of prayer. 

Reference. See on chap. vii. 7-11, " Prayer." 



106 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 6 



6. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy 
door, pray to thy Father which is in secret : and thy Father which seeth in secret 
shall reward thee openly. 

6. Thy Father which Seeth in Secret shall Reward 
THEE Openly. — Better as, in R. V., recompense thee. 
The True answer your prayers. " The true reward is not pay of 
Prayer, any kind, but that which comes 'as surely as the flow- 
ers spring from the soil where the seed has been sown.' " 

— Bishop Carpenter. 
The reward is the answer of their prayers, a growing capacity for 
the spirit of worship and communion with God, more heavenly 
character. 

" All characters 
Must shrink or widen as our wine-skins do 
For more or less that we can pour in them." 



Prayer like a Bell Rope. — " Prayer is the rope in the belfry ; 
we pull it, and it rings the bell up in heaven. Keep on pulling it, 
and, though the bell is up so high that you cannot hear it ring, 
depend upon it, it can be heard in the tower of heaven, and is ring- 
ing before the throne of God, who will give you answers of peace 
according to your faith." — Christmas Evans. 



Library. — Trench's poems, " The Suppliant." 



A Heliogram. — "September i8, 1894, a dispatch signed 'Glass- 
ford, captain,' was sent from Mount Uncompahgre, Colorado, via 
Mount Ellen, Utah, via Thompsons, Utah, via Denver, Colorado, to 
the Chief Signal officer, Washington, as follows : 

" * By sunbeam flash signal this heliogram has been sent direct 
183 miles over the sunset slopes of Colorado and Utah; thus dis- 
tancing the highest record ever made in military signaling.' 

" A heliograph eight inches square, on Mount Uncompahgre, 
caught a sunbeam, flashed it off 183 miles through the pure air to 
Mount Ellen, and by preconcerted signals sent the intelligence to 
the watchers there, they catching it on their mirrors, were prepared 
to pass it on till it was transferred to the electric telegraph and sent 
to Washington. 



VI : 7, 8 MATTHEW 107 



7. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen 
do : for they think that they shall be heard for their much 
speaking. 

8. Be not ye therefore like unto them : for your Father 
knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. 



A.». 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

HORNS OF 
HATTIN. 



" It was a simple bat effective method ; the 
same that children often use to flash a sunbeam across a room or 
into some one's face. 

" Do we ever think that we have power to flash sunbeams to a far 
greater distance ? Do we ever think how a prayer sent up to God 
may be reflected back to earth, so that a blessing may come to some 
one thousands of miles away ; to some one whom we have never 
seen ; to the sick, the sinful, the suffering, and the sad ? 

" Let us make large use of this wondrous power." 

—H. L. Hastings, D.D. 



A Whisper Heard 500 Miles.— It was announced recently that 
the American Bell Telephone Company had so perfected an instru- 
ment as to enable an ordinary whisper to be heard distinctly at a 
distance of 500 miles. With the human voice audible at 1,000 miles, 
and now a whisper half that distance, what limit are we to place 
upon future possibilities ? And if these things are within the com- 
pass of man's ingenuity and skill, who shall doubt that the divine 
ear can note the silent thought-throbbings of human prayer, even 
though infinite distances must be crossed. 



7. V4.IN Repetitions. — In some Oriental nations, as Thibet and 
parts of India, there is in use a kind of prayer-wheel. Blocks of 
wood are constructed in the shape of wheels upon a spindle. . On 
these petitions are inscribed ; and then the pious devotee 
sits patiently beneath whirling them with a string. Such rayer- 
a wheel near me is constructed like a watchman's rattle, 
containing prayers on a roll of paper in a cylinder, and is whirled by 
a slight movement of the hand. Each movement around is supposed 
to be a prayer, and the more of these prayers the more they suppose 
that God is pleased with their devotion. Our modern machinery 
could make a million such prayers an hour. 

A Shanghai (China) journal thus describes one of these machines: 
" The machine itself is a red copper cylinder about five inches long 



108 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 9 



9. After this manner therefore pray ye : Our Father which art in heaven, Hal- 
lowed be thy name. 

and three inches in diameter. The bottom and top, of the same 
material, are both removable. In the centre of the bottom is a hole 
through which a copper pin about seven inches long passes and fits 
into a socket in the centre of the inner surface of the lid. Holding 
this pin in the left hand, and giving to the machine a revolving 
motion with the right, it can be kept spinning rapidly round by the 
same rotary action of the one hand as an, acrobat uses in supporting 
bowls, saucers, etc. The outer surface of the cylinder is divided by 
chased scroll-work into five panels, on each of which is a Sanskrit 
character standing out in bas-relief, the whole forming a Buddhist 
ejacuiatory prayer. Of course the idea is that the more frequent 
the revolutions of the machine, the greater the merit of the revolu- 
tionist. Accompanying the machine are an immense number of 
paper slips, on which are printed prayers in Sanskrit." 



9, 10. The Envelope Form. — Professor Moulton, in his " Liter- 
ary Study of the Bible," arranges verses 9 and 10 in what he calls " the 
envelope form," regarding the first clause and the last clause as be- 
longing to and modifying the three petitions between. Thus : 

Our Father which art in heaven, 

Hallowed be thy name. 

Thy kingdom come, 

Thy will be done 
In earth as it is in heaven. 



9. Our Father. 

Every inmost aspiration is God's Angel undefiled. 

And in every ' O my Father ' slumbers deep a * Here, my child.' " 

— JaIdl-ed-dt?i-Ru?nt. 

Reference. See on xviii. 10, " Your Father which is in heaven." 



9. Hallowed be Thy Name. — " Milton sings of the evening 
star: 

' Hesperus, that led 
The starry train, rode brightest.' 

The first star is the most lustrous of all the night. May not this first 



VI : 10 MATTHEW . 109 



lo. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is 
in heaven. 



i* ^ 

A.a>. 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

THE lord's 
PRAYER. 



prayer, * Hallowed be Thy name,' be the brightest 
of all ; the most radiant Pleiad of the seven peti- 
tions } 

" I think that it is ; and oh, that God would give us this evening 
star ! " — Farrar. 

Library. — The uplifting power of reverence and love for that 
which is noblest and best, is shown in Carlyle's " Heroes and Hero- 
Worship." 

" Devoutly look, and nought 

But wonders shall pass by thee ; 
Devoutly read, and then 

All books shall edify thee ; 
Devoutly speak, and men 

Devoutly listen to thee ; 
Devoutly act, and then 

The strength of God act through thee." 



lo. Thy Kingdom Come.—" There is an event in the life of Dr. 
Schauffler which always stirs me. Dr. Schauffler thought it his duty 
to go to the ambassador of the Czar of Russia and offer his protest 
against the treatment of the exiles. Russia was represented in India 
at that time by a kind of protectorate ; and when Dr. 
Schauffler appeared before the ambassador with his pro- ^^' Schauffler 
test, he said to the doctor : ' I quite appreciate what you ^^i^jassador. 
say about the evil being done ; but I may as well say to 
you, Dr. Schauffler, that the kingdom of the Czar, my master, will 
never allow the kingdom of Christ to gain a foothold here.' 

" ' And I may as well tell you,' said Dr. Schauffler, * that the king- 
,dom of Christ, my Master, does not ask permission to gain a foot- 
hold anywhere.' " 

Love for the Kingdom.—" We read how the swift runner Phei- 
dippides, who bore to Athens the news of Marathon, sank dead on 
the first threshold with the words on his lips, Xaipere xal Xaipo/iev — 



110 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 10 

' Rejoice, ye ! we too rejoice.' In these fine instances individuality 
was lost in patriotism. Patriotism is noble, because it rises above 
the narrow little selfishnesses of the individual." — Farrar, 

" O God, stretch forth Thy mighty hand. 
And guide and save our fatherland ! " 

There is no true love of country that is not a part of the wider 
love of the kingdom of God throughout the whole world. We can- 
not raise any one wave of the sea permanently above the general level ; 
nor one nation permanently above the general level of humanity. 



" I may not stay 
To see the day 

When the great Saviour shall bear sway. 
And earth shall glitter in the ray 

That Cometh from above ; 
But come it fast 

Or come it slow, 
'Twill come at last 

I surely know, 
And heaven and earth shall feel the glow. 

And men shall call it Love." 

Reference. For the " Growth of the Kingdom." See on xiiL. 
32, and xxiv. 14. 

Thy Will be Done. — Compare Christ's prayer in Gethsemane. 

There are those who want the Lord's will done if only they can be 

on the committee of "ways and means," and God's will be done in 

their way. 

" No one is wise enough to insist that his own will should be done." 
The celebrated Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, who passed through 

many trying vicissitudes, ordered these words to be engraved on 

his tomb, God^s providence is my inheritajice. 



Library. — The effects of an answer to this prayer, and the over- 
turnings it would produce are vividly shown in Beecher's sermons, 
the one on this text. 

Edward Everett Hale's charming story of " Hands Off," in his 
" Christmas in a Palace," represents a man in another stage of exist- 



A.». 28. 

Sutntner. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

THE lord's 
PRATER. 



VI : lO MATTHEW 111 

ence, looking down upon Joseph as he is in the "i" 
hands of the Midianites. Being an active, in- 
genious young man, Joseph succeeded in escaping 
from his captors on the first night of his cap- 
tivity, and had just reached the outer limits of the 
camp when a yellow dog barked, awakened his 
captors, and Joseph was returned to his captivity. 
But the on-looker wanted to interfere and kill the dog before he 
had awakened the camp. Then Joseph would have 

reached home in safety, and great sorrows have been „^*^r^^L 
•^ ° Hands OflF. 

avoided. But his guardian said, ' Hands Off." And to 

let him see the evil of his interference, took him to a world where 
he could try his experiment. There he killed the dog. Joseph 
reached home in safety, his father rejoiced, his brothers were com- 
forted. But when the famine came, there had been no Joseph to 
lay up the corn. Palestine and Egypt were starved. Great num- 
bers died, and the rest were so weakened that they were destroyed 
by the savage Hittites. Civilization was destroyed. Egypt blotted 
out. Greece and Rome remained in a barbarous state. The whole 
history of the world was changed, and countless evils came because 
a man in his ignorant wisdom killed a dog and saved Joseph from 
present trouble to his future loss. 
See another illustration in Farrar's " Lord's Prayer," p. 72. 



Doing God's Will. — " When, in the great white rose of Paradise, 
Dante asks ' Whether the spirits in the outermost spheres do not 
long for a higher and nearer place } ' all the spirits glow into a happy 
smile, and Piccarda tells him that the will of them all is so absolute- 
ly the will of God that they do not dream of desiring anything but 
what God wills. Their lower place pleases them, because it pleases 
Him, and Dante says : 

" * Then saw I clearly how each spot in heaven 
Is paradise, though with like gracious dew, 
The supreme virtue shower not over all.' 

When Raphael conducted to Babylonia the boy Tobias and his dog, 

" * He did God's will ; to him all one, 
Or on the earth, or in the sun.' " — Farrar, 



112 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 10 

Thy Will be Done as it is in Heaven. 

*' If the dear Lord should send an angel down, 

A seraph radiant in his robes of light, 
To do some menial service in our streets, 

As braying stone, we'll say, from morn till night ; 
Think you the faintest blush would rise 

To mar the whiteness of his holy face ? 
Think you a thought of discontent could find 

Within his perfect heart abiding place ? 

" I love to think the sweet will of his God 

Would seem as gracious in a seraph's eyes 
In the dark and miry crowded lanes of earth 

As in the ambrosial bowers of Paradise : 
That those fair hands which lately swept the lyre 

Would not against their lowly work rebel. 
But as they ever wrought his will in heaven 

Would work it here as faithfully and well." 



Picture. — Murillo's *' Angels in the Kitchen ; or, the Miracle of 
San Diego " in the Louvre. 

" A servant with this clause 
Makes drudgery divine ; 
Who sweeps a room as for thy laws 

Makes that and the action fine." — Geo. Herbert, 



Archangels Aid to an Ant>— " In one chapter of the Koran 

is the story how Gabriel, as he waited by the gates of gold, was sent 

by God to earth to do two things. One was to pre- 

Legend y^j^^ King Solomon from the sin of forgetting the hour 
from the , ^. , . , . , , *^ , , 

Koran. ^^ prayer m exultation over his royal steeds; the other 

to help a little yellow ant on the slope of Ararat, which 
had grown weary in getting food for its nest, and which would oth- 
erwise perish in the rain. To Gabriel the one behest seemed just as 
kingly as the other, seeing that God had ordered it. 

" ' Silently he left 
The Presence, and prevented the king's sin, 
And holp the little ant at entering in.' 



VI: II MATTHEW 113 



II. Give us this day our daily bread. 



" ' Naught is too high or low, 
Too mean or mighty, if God wills it so.' " 

— Canon Farrar. 



A.D. 28. 

Sumvzer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

THE lord's 
PRAYER. 



II. Give us this Day our Daily Bread.— " In the present 
age, it is especially important to urge that men shall pray for tem- 
poral good, since so many think that the recognized presence of law 
in all temporal things puts them beyond the sphere of 
prayer, as if that would not exclude God from his uni- ^^^^ ® 
verse." — Dr. Broadus. 

The body is the instrument of the soul, and should be cared for 
as a musician cares for his violin, or an engineer for his engine. At 
the same time we are to note that out of seven petitions, " three for 
God's glory, and three for our souls," there is but one, this central 
one, for earthly things. 

Eat NOT LIKE Swine. — " ' Carnal men,' it has been said, * are 
like swine, which ravin upon the acorns, but look not up to the oak 
whence they drop.' I hope that none of you neglect the good old 
simple, beautiful practice of ' grace before meat.' and that, by teach- 
ing the significance of it to your children, you save them from the 
* inexpressible calamity ' of living lives which do not habitually look 
upwards to their source." — Farrar. 



Give Us. — No matter how much we must work for our daily liv- 
ing, still it is the gift of God, for He gives us the strength to work, 
and the opportunities, and controls the course of nature which sup- 
plies our wants. " Money is as powerless against flood and drought, 
frost and fire, rot and grub, as Pharaoh was against fog and fly, locust 
and darkness." — Boardmaii. 

" All the science in the world cannot create one grain of wheat." 
Nor can all the wealth. This fact tends to make all worldly things 
draw us toward God. For on every worldly good we see the image 
and superscription of our Heavenly Father, and a proof of his love. 

" Each blessing to my soul most dear 
Because conferred by thee." 



114: SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 12 



12. And forg^ive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

All Nature from God. — " There is a story told of an Eastern 
king, which illustrates God's work in giving growth. He was seated 
in a garden, and one of his counsellors was speaking of the wonder- 
ful works of God. ' Show me a sign,' said the king, ' and I shall 
believe.* * Here are four acorns,' said the counsellor ; ' will your maj- 
esty plant them in the ground, and then stoop down for a moment, 
and look into this clear pool of water ? ' The king did 
The Legend g^ < Now,' said the other, ' look up.' The king looked 

of the Four , , , ,,,,,,, 

Acorns. ^P' ^^^ ^^^ '^^^ oak-trees where he had planted the 
acorns. * Wonderful ! ' he exclaimed ; ' this is indeed 
the work of God.' * How long were you looking into the water ? ' 
asked the counsellor. ' Only a second,' said the king. ' Eighty 
years have passed as a second,' said the other. The king looked at 
his garments ; they were threadbare. He looked at his reflection in 
the water ; he had become an old man. * There is no miracle here 
then,' he said angrily. ' Yes,' said the other ; ' it is God's work, 
whether he do it in eighty years or in one second.' " 

— Sunday-School Times. 

Our Daily Bread.— "The bread of those ' who sit down to the 
feast of life and slink ofl without paying their reckoning,' is not 
their own bread. " 

Library. — Our Daily Bread ; the hymn of Canon Wilberforce, 
" Lord, for to-morrow and its needs I do not pray "; E. E. Hale's 
story, " Daily Bread," is capital. 



12. And Forgive us our Debts. — "St. Matthew has the word 
* debts ' {o(pei?i^fiaTa); St. Luke says ' sins ' {d/uapTiag). The words which 
indicate the aberration of our race are ' mournfully numerous,' but 
each of them presents but a different aspect of the one immense 
insuperable mystery, the mystery of all mysteries, the trial of all 

faith, the anguish and ruin of all nature, the plague of 
for Siir*'' every individual heart. The commonest word for sin in 

Scripture is dfiapTia. It means the missing of a mark ; it 
emphasizes the truth that sin is a blunder and a ruin ; that sin 
means failure ; and that a life spent in sin is a life which loses the 
very end — yes, and every end — for which alone it was created. 



A.D. 28. 

Suimner. 
SERMON 
OX THE 
MOUNT. 

THE lord's 
PRATER. 



VI : 12 MATTHEW 115 

Other words in the Bible are avoiiia, lawlessness ; 
Trapaaoi], hearing amiss, or disobedience ; napd^aaig, 
trespass, going across the boundary, transgression ; 
Tzapd'nrujjLa^ fault, falling aside, moral aberration ; 
TjTTTjfia, defeat, discomfiture ; dG€f3eia^ impiousness ; 
'K7vT]iiij.e7.ELa, disharmony, a metaphor from music, as 
when Shakespeare says : 

" * How sour sweet music is 
When time is broke, and no proportion kept, 
So is it with the music of men's lives '; 

or as when Milton tells how, making us out of tune with heaven, 

" * Disproportioned sin 

Jarred against Nature's chime, and with harsh din ^^^1 ^^^^^^ 
t, , , r . . , ,, ^ forForgive- 

Broke the fair music that all creatuies made ness. 

To their great Lord.' " — Farrar. 

For all these kinds of sin we need forgiveness. And there are as 
many words for fo7'giveness as for sins, — forgive, remit, send away, 
cover up, blot out, destroy, wash away, cleanse, make them as if 
they had never been. 

Forgiveness Taking away Sin.— The thought often troubles 

us, how any forgiveness can take away the fact and the memory of 

sin. How can it remove the Cain-mark from our souls ? Will not 

the black past be forever present, forever seen ? One 

simple illustration has brought comfort. I have seen a '^^'^ Black 
VI , 1 i_ 1 J -J , i-^i 1 Coal in the 

black coal by the roadside, the very essence of blackness. g^^^ 

I have seen the sun shine on that black coal, and I could 
no longer see the blackness because of the sun's radiance reflected 
from it. It was no longer a black coal, but a star of glory. So 
when we get to heaven, the wondrous love and wisdom of God and 
of his Son Jesus in saving such sinners as we have been, will make 
ourselves and every one, forget the sin in the shining of Redeem- 
ing love. 

THE TWO TIDES. 

** The tide is out, the flats how drear. 
The dark and oozing mud laid bare ? 
Last winter's wreck protrudes its ribs 
Against the sunset's ruddy glare. 



116 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : I3 



13. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil : For thine is the 
kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. 

As if it were a grate of coals 

To warm the cool, gray twilight land 

And burn the splintered spars that lie 
In ghastly heaps along the strand. 

** I look again ; the tide is in. 

The moon rolls up the azure sky ; 
No more the lonely, gray-ribbed wreck 

And spectral spars offend the eye. 
The river is a wide, wide sea ; 

Deep o'er the flats the waters flow. 
White shining in the silver light 

As if it were a fall of snow. 

" To-night my sins seem all in view, 

My life one wreck-strown waste and wide ; 
Thou love of God, flow in, flow deep, 

A sea that all my sins shall hide ! 
And thou, O Christ, our light, look down 

In all the luster of thy grace^ 
Till every wave as mirror hold 

An image of thy shining face." — Rev. E. A. Rand, 

Reference. See on xviii. 21-35. The two debtors. 



13. And Lead us not into Temptation.— For one who is will- 
ing to go into temptation has already more than half fallen. 

" A man who knew his own weakness was asked by a friend to 
read a certain pamphlet. ' What is it }" he asked. ' Oh,' said the 

other, ' something which [a notorious infidelj has 

Keeping out written. I want you to read it.' 'I would rather not.' 
tion. ' ' Why not ? Are you afraid to } I believe you are. You 
don't dare to.' ' No, sir, I don't dare to. I have enough 
doubts of my own. I don't want anybody to suggest more. There 
are several things I don't dare to do. That is one ; to taste wine is 
another. I am afraid of these things, but I'm not afraid of you. I 
am only afraid of wrong-doing.' " — New York Independent. 

Reference. See on Matthew iv. i-i i. 



VI: 13 MATTHEW 117 



Treasure Ships and Pirates. — "You re- 
member that the pirates were always on the watch 
for the gold ships returning from Mexico and Peru. 
If there is any soul on life's stormy main that has 
on board the unsearchable riches of Christ, the 
Evil One is always eager to attack such a vessel 
and rob it of its treasures." 



A.I>. 28. 

SEK^rON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

THE lord's 
PRATER. 



— y. Henry Barrows. 



The Danger of Going into Temptation, since our hearts are 
responsive to it, is illustrated by the old Arabic fable of a great rock 
which was one vast magnet drawing ships to itself by the iron nails 
and bolts in them and thus wrecking them on its shores : or, in an- 
other form, drawing out the nails and letting the vessel fall to 
pieces. So in Sodom the soil and buildings were saturated with the 
bitumen which the fire from without kindled" to the city's destruc- 
tion. 

"The Safeguard against Temptation is not seclusion, but 
self -culture. As it is not disinfectants that will most certainly 
secure one against infection, but a sound constitution, so it is not 
rules of life that will strengthen one against temptation, 
but a strong soul. One must build up his moral consti- '*''*® 
tution by the habit of noble deeds and high thinking, by ^ ^^^^ Moral 
fellowship with pure women and honorable men. The Constitution, 
chief aids in this regimen are literature and friendship, 
for he will not afford house-room lor unclean spirits whose mind is 
already possessed with goodness, and his garments will not take fire 
in this furnace who walketh with the Son of God. Above all books, 
the Bible passes as iron into a man's blood and gives vigor to his 
will, and he that lives with Jesus catches the infection of his aims and 
spirit." — Ian Maclaren, 

Ships and the Ocean. — We are like ships, which are safe in the 
ocean so long as the ocean is not in them. Christians are safe 
enough in the world of temptation if the world is not in them. 



'' Lord, with what care hast Thou begirt us round ! 
Parents first season us ; then Schoolmasters 
Deliver us to Laws : they send us bound 
To rules of reason, holy Messengers, 



118 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : I3 

Pulpits and Sundays, — Sorrow dogging Sin, 

Afflictions sorted, Anguish of all sizes. 
Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in, 

Bibles laid open, millions of Surprises, 
Blessings beforehand, ties of Gratefulness, 

The sound of glory ringing in our ears, — 
Without, our shame ; within, our Consciences ; — 

Angels and Grace, eternal Hopes and Fears. 
Yet all these fences and their whole array ' 
One cunning bosom sin blows quite away" 

Library. — The tract, "Parley the Porter"; "Greyson Letters," 
The Madman and the Devil. In Dante's " Purgatory," Dante, to 
cure him of perilous temptations, had been led by Virgil so that he 
could see the results of sin, and now begins to climb the steep 
mountain island of Penitence. 



" Deliver us from Evil," the evil, sin. In delivering us from 
sin God delivers us from all real evil. The bitter medicine that 
cures a deadly disease is not an evil. 

Two Ways of Deliverance. — There are two ways in which God 
delivers us from worldly evils. Sometimes he enables us to escape 
from them ; at other times he permits his children to suffer outward 
evils, but always compels them to work for them a " far more exceed- 
ing and eternal weight of glory." Outward evils to a wicked man are 
entirely different from the same evils to a good man. The latter is 
like Daniel in the lions' den, with the angels shutting their mouths ; 
the former, like his enemies, who were consumed or ever they had 
reached the floor of the den. 



" Those he gloriously delivers, these he appears to abandon to their 
foes; the three children are brought forth altogether unscathed 
from the fiery furnace ; the Maccabean martyrs perish in the flames ; 
Peter is delivered from the sword of Herod, from that sword which 
has just been stained with James' blood ; one, John, the malice of an 
emperor fails to hurt, and he is plunged unharmed into the boiling 
oil ; another falls a victim to a wicked woman's spite, and his life is 
given away at a wanton dancing-girl's request. But shall we, there- 
fore, conclude that those God delivered and these he did not 



VI : 14 MATTHEW 119 



A.D. 28. 

Suminer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

FORGIYElsESS. 



14. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly 
Father will also forgive you : 

deliver? Should we not rather say those were 
delivered openly and in the face of the world — 
these as really delivered ; however, their deliver- 
ance did not as manifestly appear. — Tre7ich. 

For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power; therefore He 
can answer the prayer. 

One Example. — " Intoxicated with empire, flushed with un- 
counted victories, the first Napoleon cynically proclaimed to a 
trembling Europe : ' I have observed that God is always on the side 
of the strongest battalions.' Was He so.^ 'Amid 
bursts of cheering his Grand Army crossed the Nie- of Snow, 
men; he won the awful battle of Borodino; he took 
Smolensko ; he dictated a despatch from the Kremlin at Moscow. 
Then the soft snows of God — no more — began to fall ; and, annihi- 
lated by the most insignificant of the powers of heaven, his Gratide 
Armee was tossed out of Russia.' " — Farrar. 



And the Glory. — At the Evangelical Alliance a French speaker 
said, " Some papers have said that our meetings were too compli- 
mentary ; to which I would answer by a line of one of our French 
poets, addressing himself to Louis XIV. : ' Great king, cease to win 
victories, and we shall cease to praise and to sing your glory,' " So 
we will never cease to give glory to God, because his goodness and 
love never cease to shine upon us and his answers to our prayers 
never fail. 

Reference. See on chapter xviii. 21-35. 

Library. — " Hamlet," act 3, scene 3, the Soliloquy of the King of 
Denmark. Whately's " Annotations" on Bacon's essays, " Anger " 
and " Revenge." 

Parable.—" The Unmerciful Servant." 



Examples. — Christ on the cross ; Stephen when stoned. 

14. Forgive, .... your Heavenly Father will also For- 
give. 



120 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI: 15 

15. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive 
your trespasses. 

" Here lie I, David Elginbrod, 
Have mercy on my sins, Lord God ; 
As I would do, were I Lord God, 
And ye were David Elginbrod." — An Old Epitaph. 

15. But if ye Forgive not.— "I have known a man nurse the 
tiny cockatrice-egg of unforgiveness till it has burst into the fiery 
serpent of crime." — Farrar. 



" Forgive and forget. When you bury a mad dog, don't leave his 
tail above ground." — Spurgeons Salt-cellars, p. 175. 



There is no wrong, by any one committed, 

But will recoil ; 
Its sure return, with double ill repeated, 

No skill can foil. 
As on the earth the mists it yields to heaven 

Descend in rain. 
So on his head who e'er has evil given. 

It falls again." 



Prayer of the Unforgiving Man. — "Conceive an unforgiving 
man, with heart full of wrath against his neighbor, with a memory 
which treasures up the little wrongs and insults and provocations he 
fancies himself to have- received from that neighbor; conceive such 
a man praying to God Most High to forgive him his debts as he for- 
gives his debtors, What, in the mouth of such a man, do these 
words mean } That you may fully understand their meaning, I will 
turn them into a prayer, which we will call The Prayer of the Unforgiv- 
mg Man : ' O God, I have sinned against Thee many times ; I have 
been often forgetful of Thy goodness ; I have broken Thy laws ; I 
have committed many secret sins. Deal with me, I beseech Thee, 
O Lord, even as I deal with my neighbor. He hath not offended me 
one-hundredth part as much as I have offended Thee, but I cannot 
forgive him. He has been very ungrateful to me, though not an 
hundredth part as ungrateful as I have been to Thee, yet I cannot 



VI:l6-l8 MATTHEW 121 



A.U. 28. 

Sum777er. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

FASTINS. 



i6. TI Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hj-pocrites, of a 
sad countenance : for they disfigure their faces, that they may 
appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you. They have 
their reward, 

17. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash 
thy face ; »J. 

18. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy 

Father which is in secret : and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee 
openly. 

overlook such base ingratitude. Deal with me, O Lord, I beseech 
Thee, as I deal with him. 1 remember and treasure up every little 
trifle which shows how ill he has behaved to me. Deal with me, I 
beseech Thee, O Lord, as I deal with him.' Can anything be more 
shocking and horrible than such a prayer } Yet this is just the prayer 
the unforgiving man offers up every time he repeats the Lord's 
Prayer." — Archbishop Augustus Hare, z'n Alton Sernjons {condensed). 



Unforgiving, Unforgiven.— " You say that the desert is a desert 
because no rain falls upon it ; but that is only half the truth. No 
rain falls upon it because it is a desert. The heated air rushing 
up from its arid surface disperses the vapors that 
would descend in rain. Some moisture there must be ^^ ^*^^ 
on the earth, else there cannot be rain from heaven. So Desert, 
in your heart this forgiving disposition must be, else 
you cannot rejoice in the fullness of God's forgiving grace. The par- 
don may wait in the sky above you, but it cannot descend to you 
until that mind is in you which was also in Christ Jesus." 

— Washington Gladden. 

16-18. Hypocrites Appearing to Worship.— In that charming 
and instructive book, " The Cross-Bearer " (Am. Tract 
Soc), is a series of twelve pictures representing different J^ ippin? 
ways of bearing the cross. In one of them the cross- iugtead of 
bearer has set up his cross in the ground, crowned it Bearing it. 
with flowers, and is worshipping it instead of bearing it. 
So do those who worship fasting, an instrument of the soul's progress, 
but do not use it for the purpose for which it was made. 



Formal Worship.—" We have read of a lady missionary in India 
who, on visiting a certain town, found the place smitten with cholera. 



122 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI: I9, 20 

19. If Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth cor- 
rupt, and where thieves break through and steal : 

20, But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth 
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal : 

She gave to some of the patients a specific for cholera, and ordered 

further supplies of the medicine for other sufferers. On her return 

she was delighted, on meeting the chief man of the place, to hear 

him say, ' We have been so much benefitted by your medicine 

that we have decided to accept also your God.' To 

Worshipping pj-QyQ the reality of what he said, he led her into their 

cine* BotUes". temple, where she saw the empty bottles arranged in 

order on a shelf ; and immediately the whole company 

of natives prostrated themselves upon the floor in worship to the 

bottles as a god. It is quite possible that very Christian people may 

sometimes fall into an analogous idolatry. An excessive reverence 

or admiration for certain formulas of worship, capable of conveying 

a true blessing when the worship is really in the Spirit, but useless 

as empty medicine bottles when the Spirit is lacking, may not be 

so remote in character from the worship of empty bottles." 

— I^ev. D. Berger, D.D. 

19, 20. The Banished Kings.— In one of Trench's poems he tells 
the ancient story of " The Banished Kings " — how a king, learning 
that at some time, as yet unknown, he would be banished to islands 
beyond the horizon of the sea, sent over there treasures, prepared 
houses and gardens for his future life, till he looked with more joy 
to the land where his treasures were than to the kingdom which he 
then enjoyed. So may we lay up treasures in heaven. 



Temptation from Earthly Treasures. — " There is a story of 
a high mountain on whose top was a palace filled with all treasures, 
gold, gems, singing birds — a paradise of pleasure. Up its sides men 

and women were climbing to reach the top, but every 

^'xr^'^ur****' one who looked back was turned into stone. And yet 

Mountain, thousands of evil spirits were around them, whispering, 

shouting, flashing their treasure-s, singing love songs to 
draw their eyes from the treasure at the top and to make them look 
back, but everyone who looked back was turned into stone. So is 
everyone who is seeking heavenly treasures tempted by earthly 
music and sinful joys, but whosoever yields is lost." 



1 



VI : 19, 20 MATTHEW 123 

Treasures of Religion. — " In the ' grreen 



room' at Dresden, where for centuries the Saxon | smnmer' 

SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

HEAVENLY 
TREASURES . 



princes have gathered their gems and treasures, 

until they have become worth millions of dollars, 

may be seen a silver egg, a present to one of the 

Saxon queens, which, when you touch a spring, 

opens, and reveals a golden yolk. Within this is 

hid a chicken, whose wing, being pressed, also flies open, disclosing 

a splendid gold crown studded with jewels. Another 

secret spring being touched, hidden in the centre is '^^^ Silver 

found a magnificent diamond ring. So the treasures of Dresden. 

religion are not discovered at the first view ; but when 

laid open are found to be greater than any king ever possessed. 

Their value will appear greater and greater to all eternity." 



A Chest or a Mine. — An Eastern king was showing his treasure- 
chest to the ambassador of the King of Spain, after the discovery 
of the mines in America. The ambassador put his hand to the bot- 
tom of the king's chest, and said, " I can reach the bottom of your 
treasures ; but there is no bottom, no end, to the treasures of my 
Master." 

ST. THOMAS AND KING GONDOFORUS. 

" The king would build, so a legend says, 
The finest of all fine palaces. 

" He sent for St. Thomas, a builder rare, 
And bade him to rear them a wonder fair. 

" The king's great treasure was placed at hand ; 
And with it the sovereign's one command,— 

" ' Build well, O builder, so good and great ! 
And add to the glory of my estate. 

" * Build well, nor spare of my wealth to show 
A prouder palace than mortals know.' 

" The king took leave of his kingdom then, 
And wandered far from the haunts of men. 



124: SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : I9, 20 

" St. Thomas the king's great treasure spent 
In worthier way than his master meant. 

" He clad the naked, the hungry fed, 
The oil of gladness around him shed. 

" He blessed them all with the ample store. 
As never a king's wealth blessed before. 

" The king came back from his journey long, 
But found no grace in the happy throng 

" That greeted him now on his slow return 
To teach him the lesson he ought to learn. 

" The king came back to his well-spent gold ; 
But no new palace could he behold. 

" In terrible anger he swore, and said 
That the builder's folly should cost his head. 

" St. Thomas in dungeon dark was cast, 
Till the time for his punishment dire was passed. 

" Then it chanced, or the good God willed it so. 
That the king's own brother in death lay low. 

" When four days dead, as the legend reads, 
He rose to humanity's life and needs. 

" From sleep of the dust he strangely woke, 
And thus to his brother the king he spoke : 

" *' I have been to paradise, O my king ! 
And have heard the heavenly angels sing. 

" ' And there I saw, by the gates of gold, 
A palace finer than tongue has told ; 

*' * Its walls and towers were lifted high, 
In beautiful grace to the bending sky ; 

" ' Its glories, there in that radiant place. 

Shone forth like a smile from the dear Lord's face. 



VI : 2 1 MATTHEW 125 



A.D. 28. 

Suatmer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

HEATENLT 
TREASURES. 



21. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

" ' An angel said it was builded there 

By the good St. Thomas, with love and care 

*' * For our fellow-men, and that it should be 
Thy palace of peace through eternity.' 

" The king this vision pondered well, 
Till he took St. Thomas from his dungeon-cell, 

" And said, ' O builder ! he most is wise 
Who buildeth ever for Paradise.' " 

— From Geraldine, 

Library. — In Mrs. Jamieson's " Sacred and Legendary Art," this 
same story is told of King Gondoforus of India. 
Longfellow's Poems, " Morituri Salutamus," beginning at the lines : 

"In medieval Rome, I know not where. 
There stood an image with its arm in air. • 
And on its lifted finger, shining clear, 
A golden ring with the device, ' Strike here ' ! " 

Where the shadow of the finger fell a man dug in the ground and 
found a secret stairway leading to a hall containing untold wealth, 
but the man perished. 

" The image is the adversary old 
Whose beckoning finger points to realms of gold ; 
Our lusts and passions are the downward stair 
That leads the soul from a diviner air ; 
The archer. Death, the flaming jewel. Life ; 
Terrestrial goods, the goblet and the knife ; 
The knights and ladies, all whose flesh and bone 
By avarice have been hardened into stone." 



21. Where your Treasure .... there your Heart. — " In one 
of the art galleries of Italy there is a curious picture, by an early paint- 
er, which represents a sick man stretched on his bed, and his phy- 
sicians come to visit him. They have examined their patient, and 



126 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 22 



22. The light of the body is the eye : if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole 
body shall be full of hght. 

ascertained his malady to be that his heart is gone — it has altogether 

disappeared. From a pulpit nearby, St. Anthony of Padua is preaching 

on the text, ' For where your treasure is, there will your 

™, " heart be also.' He announces where the particular or- 

ures: The ^ 

Lost, Heart gan in question will be found ; and the clew he furnishes 
Found ill the is followed up, in another compartment of the painting, 
reasure ^^ ^ group of the sick man's friends, who open his strong 
box, and stand amazed at discovering the missing mem- 
ber reposing among the abundant gold pieces. The artist appar- 
ently considered the incident an actual occurrence ; and we should 
err in feeling unmixed amusement at his credulity. For it is as true 
as though it were a literal fact, that the heart may be enticed from 
its rightful place to lie among earthly treasures. The case of the 
invalid, in the picture, is not so singular as at first it might seem." 

Reference. Lot's wife looking back to Sodom. 



The Soul of Peter Garcia. — In the introduction to " Gil 
Bias " is the story of two students who found a stone with this 
inscription, " Here lies the soul of Peter Garcia." One ridicules the 
idea that a soul could lie in the ground ; the other dug around the 
stone, lifted it up, and found under it one hundred gold pieces, 
willed to the one who should have wit enough to see that Peter 
Garcia had put his soul into the treasure. 



Bruce's Heart. — The heart is not only the test of the treasure, but 
the treasure may be a means of placing our heart where it ought to 
be. There is a story that Robert Bruce of Scotland bequeathed his 
heart to a favorite nobleman, who encased it in a gold casket, and 
carried it with him in the war of the Crusades. One time, being 
hard pressed by the Saracens, he took this heart and, throwing it 
among the enemy, fought to regain it. So we are to put our hearts 
into God's work and warfare, and we shall obtain the victory in seek- 
ing to gain that in which we have placed our hearts. 



22. Thine Eye be Single. — dTrAow^, without folds, hence simple, 
single, seeing but one image of an object, as differing from those 



VI : 23 MATTHEW 127 



23. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of 
darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, 
how great z's that darkness ! 

who are cross-eyed, see things double or distorted, 
or in flickering images. Compare simplicity, from 
the Latin simplex ; semd, once ; plicare, to fold ; 
or si7te plico, without a fold. See Trench on the " Study of Words." 



A.D. 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 
THE SIN LE 
EYE. 



Library. — Prof. Scripture's " Thinking, Feeling and Doing. 



The Bad-Eye Factory.— Prof. Scripture in an article on 
" Schools," says that frequently, by their desks, by the fineness 
of the print in some lesson-books, and of the work in some kinder- 
gartens, our schools become bad-eye factories. So it is that passion, 
ambition, the love of wealth, the worldly spirit, are bad spiritual eye- 
factories, destroying our vision of God, of our neighbor's interests, 
of eternal life. 

An astronomer looking through his telescope thought that he 
had discovered some immense and peculiar inhabitants in the moon, 
but in reality they were but some minute insects upon his lens. So 
men magnify worldly things till they obscure in importance spiritual 
and heavenly things. 

" A finger's breadth at hand will mar 
A world of light in heaven afar, 
A mote eclipse a glorious star." 



Library. — Compare Edgar A. Poe's story " The Sphinx," where 
what seemed a huge and hideous monster rushing down the mount- 
ain side, was but a sphinx, a death's-head moth, slowly crawling down 
the window pane. And the story of the Gyascutus in Prof. Vincent's 
pamphlet, " That Monster, the Higher Critic." Both illustrate how 
imagination, prejudice, ignorance, passion, fear, may distort our vis- 
ion and make us see things as they are not. Few people see others 
as they really are. 

Wrecks through Deflected Compass. — " The * Roumania,' 
with its freight of newly-wedded loves, and nestful of children, and 
heroic missionaries, left Liverpool well equipped for the voyage. 



128 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 24 



24: T] No man can serve two masters : for either he will hate the one, and love the 
other ; or else he wiU hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God 
and mammon, 

and on the Thursday night following all her living cargo save a few 
persons were either drowned in their cabins, or swept from the 
ship's deck by furious seas, with the shore only fifty yards away. It 
was on the same treacherous coast that the ' Serpent ' was cast away. 
Both ships were far out of their proper course. If it be true that 
there sets a magnet current off the coast of Portugal by which the 
ship's compass is deflected, there needs no other explanation of the 
calamity. * If the light that is, in thee be darkness, how great is that 
darkness.' " — London Sunday- School Chronicle. 



Library. — An illustration of the attempt to serve two masters is 
found in the little book, " The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. 
Hyde," here the evil gained the victory. On the other hand, the 
victory of the good throwing off the yoke of the bad master and 
serving the good, is attractively set forth in Lynde Palmer's " John- 
Jack." 

Compare the self-dialogue of Launcelot Gobbo in Shakepeare's 
" Merchant of Venice." 

24. Mammon. 

" For though, pernicious Gold, no altars flame, 
Nor rise such domes in honor of thy name. 
As Peace, Faith, Valor, Victory, obtain, 
Yet thou, more honored, sharest the purer part, 
The unfeigned devotions of the votary's heart." 

— Juvenal, Englished by ati Old Hand. 



k 



Library. — Milton's description of mammon in " Paradise Lost," 
I., 678 ff : 

" Mammon led them on : 
Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell 
From heaven : for e'en in heaven his looks and thoughts 
Were always downward bent, admiring more 
The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold. 
Than aught divine or holy, else enjoyed 
In vision beatific." 



VI : 2 s MATTHE\Y 129 



25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, 
what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your 
body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, 
and the body than raiment ? 



A.D. 28. 

Stimmgr. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

WORLDLY 
ANXIETY. 



Fire as Servant or Master.— Fire, says the 
proverb, is a good servant, but a bad master. So 
is mammon, As a servant, riches may minister to every good, 
temporal and spiritual, — to comfort the sick, to soothe the afflicted, 
to help the poor, to spread the gospel. As master, fire itself cannot 
burn the heart as riches torment and destroy the soul. 



The man with the muck-rake in " Pilgrim's Progress." The fable 
of the donkey carrying a load of gold and fragrant spices that 
weighed him down, but which he could not enjoy. 



John Newton once said that if Nebuchadnezzar's image was of solid 
gold, and every worshipper was to have a bit of it, he feared that his 
nation, as well as the great kings, would be ready to fall down 
before it. 

25. Take no Thought.—" This translation has troubled many 
a tender conscience. Take thought, in this passage, was a truthful 
rendering when the A. V was made, since thought was then used as 
equivalent to anxiety or solicitude. So Shakespeare (Hamlet) : 

' The native hue of resolution 
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.' 

" And Bacon (Henry VH.) : ' Hawis, an alderman of London, was 
put in trouble, and died with thought and anguish.' Som.ers' tracts 
(in Queen Elizabeth's reign): ' Queen Catherine Parr died rather of 
thought.' The word has entirely- lost this meaning. Bishop Light- 
foot {071 afresh revision of the New Testament) says : ' I have heard 
of a political economist alleging this passage as an objection to the 
moral teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, on the ground that it 
encouraged, nay, commanded, a reckless neglect of the future.' It 
is uneasiness and worry about the future which our Lord condemns 
here, and therefore R. V. rightly translates be not anxious. This 
phase of the word is forcibly brought out in i Pet. v. 7, where the A. V. 



130 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 26 



26. Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather 
into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than 
they? 

ignores the distinction between the two kinds of care. * Casting all 
your care duepi/uvav, R. V., a7ixiety) upon him, for he careth (avru jieleL) 
for you,' with a fatherly, tender, and provident care." — M. R. Vincent. 



Library. — The brilliant author of " Master and Men," opens his 
work on the " Sermon on the Mount " with a chapter entitled " Puz- 
zles," because the contrast between heathen nations and Chris- 
tian nations is so strange when placed beside the Sermon on the 
Mount. This writer points out that Jesus calls upon His followers 
to take no thought for the morrow. But it is in pagan countries that 
people are most free from care as to the future, while in 

Anxieties Christian countries the anxiety is the greatest. There 

^^ Lands*^^" ^^ "^^^^ ^^^^ ^"^ ^^^^ ^" ^ y^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^y ^^^^ ^^^" 
in a century of Hindoostan. He bids men labor not for 

the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto eternal 
life. Yet it is in Christian countries that men, women, and children 
toil for the things which perish in the using, while pagan and Moslem 
countries enjoy far more leisure. He bids them lay up for them- 
selves, not treasures upon earth, but in heaven. Yet Christian na- 
tions are distinguished from all others by the accumulation of wealth. 
Compare the promise in v. 33, and in xix. 29. 



26. Behold the Fowls (the Birds), your Heavenly Father 
Feedeth Them.— Not in idleness, not by putting food in their 
mouths while they sit still in the trees and sing and wait ; but by 
providing the food which they can obtain, and providing them with 
the means of seeing and obtaining food. Not idleness, but industry, 
is taught us by God's care of the birds. They build nests, they 
migrate to warmer climes when food fails them in the North, they 
are up early seeking food. 

True Lesson from the Birds. — Augustine said to the monks 
who lived by beggary through a misinterpretation of 

Augustine ^|^jg passage : " You must at least be consistent. It is 
and the ^ ^ . , , , x-, • 

Monks. t^^^ y^^ neither sow nor reap ; you understand Christ 

literally, where toil is to be escaped ; by the same reason 

you should have no barns ; but you have such, in which you make 



1 



VI: 27, 28 



MATTHEW 



131 



A.D. 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

TRUST IN GOD. 



27. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto 
his stature ? 

28. And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the 
lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they 
spin ; 

no scruple about storing the labor of others. If 
you will be as the birds, what means the preparation of your food, 
your grinding and your baking.^ What your reserving apart for 
to-morrow } It is the anxiety, not the labor, from which you are 
prohibited." 

Library. — Geo. Macdonald's poem, " Consider the Fowls of the 
Air "; Poem, " The Little Brown Sparrow." 



27. One Cubit to His Stature. — ifkiKiav, stature, or age. Many 
a very short person would give a fortune to add a cubit to his stature. 
I knew one person who said that an increase of stature would have 
been worth a thousand dollars an inch to him. But nearly every 
one would be glad to add a cubit to his age, regarding his age, as in 
Psa. xxxix. 5, as a span, or conceiving of life as a race or journey. 
One near to death is reported to have said, " Millions of money for 
an inch of time ! " 



The Hflleh 
Lily. 



28. Consider the Lilies. — " A French botanist, who had a com- 
mission from the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, told me that after five 
years of collecting in Syria he seemed as far as ever from 
completing his work ; and that though he had visited 
Buenos Ayres, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Moluc- 
cas, yet he found no land which could compare with Syria for 
its flowers. It is here also that the Huleh lily, which surpasses in love- 
liness all lilies of the field, has its native home." 

— Prof. W. H. Tkojnson, M.D., in Parables and Their Home. 



" The Huleh lily is very large ; and the three inner petals meet 
above, and form a gorgeous canopy, such as art never approached 
and king never sat under, even in his utmost glory. And when I 
met this incomparable flower, in all its loveliness, among the oak 
woods around the north base of Tabor and on the hills of Nazareth, 
where our Lord spent His youth, I felt assured that it was to this He 
referred." — W. M, Tho?nson, in Land and Book. 



132 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 29 



29. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed 
like one of these. 

Library. — " Parables in Their Home," by Dr. Wm. H. Thomson, 
p. 17. 

The Lily here doubtless includes flower of all kinds. " The 
Jordan valley was now one blaze of beautiful flowers, growing in 
a profusion not often to be found even in more fertile lands. The 
ground was literally covered with blossoms ; the great red anemone, 
like a poppy, grew in long tracts on the stony soil ; on the soft marls 
patches of delicate lavender color were made by the wild stocks ; the 
retem, or white broom (the juniper of Scripture), was in 

p^TTi* ®^ full blossom, and the rich purple nettles contrasted with 
fields of kutufy, or yellow St. John's wort. There were 
also quantities of orange-colored marigolds, long fields of white 
and purple clover, tall spires of asphodel, and clubs of snap-dragon, 
purple salvias and white garlic, pink geraniums and cistus, tall white 
umbelliferous plants, and large chamomile daisies, all set in a border 
of deep green herbage, which reached the shoulders of the horses. Jor- 
dan's banks were covered with flowers, while brown turfali, or tama- 
risks, and cane-brake line the rushing stream, and the white marl 
banks stood out in striking contrast." — Lieut. Cojider, R.E. 



The Lily criticised by the Corn— A Legend. — According to 
an old legend, the corn once criticised the lily, saying, " One cannot 
earn a living just by being sweet ;" but the lily only returned a smile, 
and waited until Jesus passed ; then they both heard Him say to His 
disciples, " Children, the life is more than meat, consider the lilies, 
how beautiful they grow ! " 

29. Solomon in all His Glory, Possessing 

" ' The wealth of Ormus and of Ind, 
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold.' 

" In two respects this declaration is literally true ; first, because 
his glory was external, glory put on, while that of the flower is its 
own, a being developed from within ; second, because the beauty of 
the most perfect fabric is imperfect, and shows itself rough and 



VI : 30 MATTHEW 133 



30. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of tlie field, which 
to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much 
more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? 



A.I>. 2 8. 

Sunijuer. 
SEKNION 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

AGAINST 
ANXIETY. 



coarse under the microscope, while the beauty of 
the flower has no imperfection, but, on the con- 
trary, discloses under the microscope glories unseen by the naked 
eye." — Abbott. 

30. If God so Clothe, etc. — " Sometimes it is hard to believe 
that the infinite God, who holds the seas in his hand, and controls 
the stars in their courses, should care for each individual soul. We 
are so small, and God's universe is so great! We are 
but insects on a world which is but a grain of sand to ^'Od's Care 
many of the stars. But it is the greatness of God that ^"^ ThTn-s^'^ 
He cares for the animaculse that swim in a dewdrop as 
fish in the ocean, as perfectly as for a world. If God cares for the 
atoms and the molecules, if He provides for birds and flowers, for the 
insects of an hour, for the bees, ' the singing masons building roofs 
of gold,' how much more will He care for the souls and bodies of His 
children, made in His own likeness ! 

" ' I know not where His islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air ; 
I only know I cannot drift 
Beyond His love and care.' " — WJiittier. 



Not Marvels, but Daily Care.—" God's children were not to 
trust in miracles and marvels for their daily bread ; they were not to 
be always looking and calling for the extraordinary — manna from 
the sky, water from the riven rocks. He who clothes the grass of 
the field will much more clothe them, and by the same power work- 
ing in the same way." — H. J. Van Dyke, D.D. 



How MUCH MORE Clothe You.— " When Bulstrode Whitelock 

was about to embark as Cromwell's envoy to Sweden, in 1655, he was 

much disturbed in mind as he rested in Harwich on the preceding 

night, which was ver}" stormy, while he reflected on the 

distracted state of the nation. It happened that a confi- ^,^!f!"''''j^ 
, . 1. , , , ^ ,. Whitelock. 

dential servant slept m an adjacent bed, who, finding 

that his master could not sleep, said : ' Pray, sir, will you give me 



13J: SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI:3I-33 

31. Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat ? or, What shall we 
drink ? or. Wherewithal shall we be clothed ? 

32. (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek :) for your heavenly Father 
knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 

33. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all these 
things shall be added unto you. 

leave to ask you a question ? ' ' Certainly.' ' Pray, sir, don't you 
think God governed the world very well before you came into it ? ' 
'Undoubtedly.' 'And pray, sir, don't you think that He can take 
care of it while you are in it ? ' To this question Whitelock had 
nothing to reply, but turning about soon fell asleep." 

Reference. Luther's experience, xi. 1-6. 



31. Take no Thought.— One great value of rest from anxiety is 
expressed in Miss Waring's poem : 

" I asked Thee for a thoughtful love 
Through constant watching wise, 
To meet the glad with joyful smiles 

And wipe the weeping eyes ; 
A heart at leisure from itself. 
To soothe and sympathize." 



yi. In Luke (xii. 29) the similar passage reads : " Seek not ye what 
ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye as a ship that is 
tossed oil the waves of a tempestuous sea {jir] fxereupl^eGde, A. V. be ye 
of doubtful mind), and your Father knoweth," etc. 

— Henry J. Van Dyke. 

33. Seek ye First. — " The first four words of the Bible make a 
model motto for every enterprise and labor for man. 
Prince ' In the beginning, God.' The late Prince Albert, 
Albert's Queen Victoria's husband, evidently recognized this, 
Ent rincOs- ^"^ began every movemerl of his life in a devout spirit. 
borne House. He built a beautiful home on the Isle of Wight, which 
he called Osborne House. When he and his wife went 
to live in it he repeated this prayer which Martin Luther had writ- 
ten in German lono: before : 



VI : ^S MATTHEW 135 



" ' God bless our going out, nor less 

Our coming in, and make them sure 

God bless our daily bread, and bless 
Whate'er we do — whate'er endure : 

In death unto His peace awake us, 



ALL THESE 
THINGS ADDED. 

And heirs of His salvation make us.' " •i' •^ 



A.D. 28. 

Sufnmer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



All These Things Shall be Added. — " It is a very remarkable 
fact that scientific and health-giving medical and surgical 
practice is found only in those lands where Christianity illustrated 
has become established. It may therefore be accepted that science* 
rational and beneficial medical and surgical science and 
skill are blessings which come to us directly, in the providence of 
God, as many other blessings do, from the gospel. " 

J^ev. A. P. Hopper, D.D. 

Observation among the Indians.— Rev. Mr. Shelton, who has 
lived many years among the Indians, says that he has not found a 
single Indian who has yet been civilized before he was Christianized. 



Library. — Trumbull's "Studies in Oriental Social Life," The 
Need of Healing. 



Individual and National Riches. — "We should attend to 
the distinction between an zndzvzdual and a coimnimity, when 
viewed as possessing a remarkable share of wealth. The two cases 
differ immensely, as far as the moral effects of wealth are con- 
cerned." — Whately. 

One cultivates pride, the other not ; one cherishes luxury, indo- 
lence, selfishness ; the other tends to the opposite virtues. Hence 
the gospel promise of " all these things added " refers probably to 
the general welfare and to the individual as partaking thereof. This 
is true of all Christian nations in proportion to the purity of their 
Christianity. 

Library. — Whately's " Annotations," pp. 370-374, for a full dis- 
cussion of the above. 

Inequalities. — "That strange and searching genius, Nathaniel 
Hawthorne, in one of his spiritual fantasies, has imagined a new 



136 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 34 

34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow : for the morrow shall take thought 
for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. 

Adam and Eve coming to the earth after a Day of Doom has swept 
away the whole of mankind, leaving their works and abodes and in- 
ventions, — all that bears witness to the present condition of human- 
ity, — untouched and silently eloquent. The representatives of a 
new race enter with wonder and dismay the forsaken heritage of the 
old. They pass through the streets of a depopulated city. The 
sharp contrast between the splendor of one habitation and the 
squalor of another fills them with distressed astonishment. They 
are painfully amazed at the unmistakable signs of inequality in the 
conditions of men. They are troubled and overwhelmed by the evi- 
dence of the great and miserable fact that one portion of earth's lost 
inhabitants was rich and comfortable and full of ease, while the mul- 
titude was poor and weary and heavy laden with toil." — Henry Van 
Dyke, D.D., in Gospel for an Age of Doubt. See Hawthorne's Mosses 
from an Old Manse, p. 2gy {Riverside Editioii). 

The gospel tends to equalize these inequalities. Even now in the 
best communities the poor can have the richest libraries, the most 
beautiful churches, the best streets, well lighted ; healthful sewer- 
age, electric cars, and many, many other comforts denied even to 
kings in the not-so-long-ago. 



Library, — That each individual should receive worldly rewards 
in proportion to his virtues, and immediately, would tend to destroy 
virtue. See illustration in Rogers' "Greyson Letters," which de- 
scribes a man whose conscience became so entangled with his stom- 
ach that every deception made him sea-sick and the least thought of 
untruth unsettled his stomach, so that he became truthful almost by 
force and longed to be free so that be could know whether he really 
loved the truth and were willing to make sacrifices in order to main- 
tain it. 



34. Sufficient unto the Day is the Evil thereof.— Sidney 
Smith says that the best remedy for melancholy is to take short 
views of life. Why destroy present happiness by a distant misery 
which may never come at all ? " For every substantial grief has twenty 
shadows, and most of them shadows of your own making." 



VI: 34 



MATTHEW 


13^ 


TO-DAY. T" ►^ 


Lord ! for to-morrow and its needs, 


A.». 28. 

Summer. 


I do not pray ; . 
Keep me, my God, from stain of sin, 
Just for to-day. 


SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 


Let me both diligently work 




And duly pray; 
Let me be kind in word and deed, 




Just for to-day. 





Let m.e be slow to do my will. 

Prompt to obey ; 
Help me to mortify my flesh. 

Just for to-day. 

Let me no wrong nor idle word 

Unthinking say ; 
Set thou a seal upon my lips, 

Just for to-day. 

Let me in season. Lord, be grave. 

In season, gay ; 
Let me be faithful to thy grace. 

Just for to-day. 

And if to-day my life 

Should ebb away, 
Give me thy sacraments divine, 

Sweet Lord, to-day. 

So for to-morrow and its needs 

I do not pray ; 
But keep me, guide me, love me, Lord, 

Just for to-day. 



" It is certainly a frenzy to go now and whip yourself, because it 
may so fall out that Fortune mav one day decree you a whipping, 
and to put on your furred gown at Midsummer, because you will 
stand in need of it at Christmas." — Jacox. 



138 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VI : 34 

Dreading the Future. — "That great, though morbid man, 
John Foster, could not heartily enjoy the summer weather, for think- 
ing how every sunny day was a downward step toward 
John ^Yie winter gloom. *I have seen a fearful sight to-day,' 

Foster's o j ' 

Experience. ^^ would say, ' I seen a buttercup ! ' The bent of his 
mind was so onward-looking that he saw only a premoni- 
tion of December in the roses of June." — From A. K. H. B. 



Library. — A. K. H. B.'s " Recreations of a Country Parson "; 
Jacox's "Secular Annotations," Vol. I., pp. 47-55, for illustrations 
from Literature. 

BEARING THE FUTURE BURDENS. 

" Labor with what zeal you will. 
Something still remains undone ; 
Something uncompleted still 
Waits the rising of the sun. 

" By the bedside, on the stair. 

At the threshold, near the gates. 
With its menace or its prayer 
Like a mendicant it waits ; 

" Waits and will not go away ; 

Waits and will not be gainsaid : 
By the cares of yesterday 
Each to-day is heavier made ; 

" Till at length the burden seems 

Greater than our strength can bear; 
Heavy as the weight of dreams 
Pressing on us everywhere. 

" And we stand from day to day. 
Like the dwarfs of time gone by, 
Who, as Northern legends say. 
On their shoulders held the sky." 



villi, 2 MATTHEW 139 



CHAPTER VII. 



1. Judge not, that ye be not judged. 

2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged : 
and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you 
again. 



A.D. 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

JUDGING. 



I. Judge Not, /.<?., do not decide on that which '^ 

is beyond your knowledge ; do not impute bad 

motives and condemn men on this assumption. " For," says Carlyle, 

"to judge another correctly, we must not merely measure the few 

inches of aberration from the mathematical orbit, but 

reckon the ratio of these to the whole diameter. This ^4.S^^^ 

others. 
orbit may be a planet's, its diameter the breadth of the 

solar system ; or it may be a city hippodrome, nay, the circle of a 

gin-horse, its diameter a score of feet or paces. But the inches of 

deflection only are measured ; and it is assumed that the diameter 

of the gin-horse and that of the planet will yield the same ratio 

when compared to them. 

"Granted, the ship comes into harbor with shrouds and tackle 

damaged ; the pilot is blameworthy, he has not been all-wise and 

all-powerful ; but to know hozu blameworthy, tell us first whether 

his voyage has been round the globe, or only to Ramsgate and the 

Isle of Dogs." 

A Fly on the Cathedral Pillar.— "There is a striking pas- 
sage in which a great philosopher, the famous Bishop Berkeley, de- 
scribes the thought which occurred to him of the inscrutable 
schemes of Providence as he saw in St. Paul's Cathedral a fly mov- 
ing on one of the pillars. He says : ' It requires some comprehen- 
sion in the eye of an intelligent spectator to take in at one view the 
various parts of the building in order to observe their symmetry and 
design. But to the fly, whose prospect was confined to a little part 
of one of the stones of a single pillar, the joint beauty of the whole 
or the distant use of its parts was inconspicuous. To that limited 
view the small irregularities on the surface of the hewn stone 
seemed to be so many deformed rocks and precipices.' That fly on 
the pillar, of which the philosopher spoke, is the likeness of each 



140 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : I, 2 

human being as he creeps along the vast pillars which support the 
universe." — Dean Stanley. 

Understanding Others. — It is with equal ignorance often that 
we see the real meaning and motives of the conduct of others. " We 
see a little bit here and there," says one of the characters in Arthur 
Helps' " Friends in Council," " and then assume the nature of the 
whole. Even a very silly man's actions are often more to the pur- 
pose than his friends' comments on them." 



"As if upon a full-proportioned dome 
On swelling columns heaved the pride of art, 
A critic fly, whose feeble ray scarce spreads 
An inch around, with blind presumption bold 
Should dare to tax the structure of the whole." 

— Tho7nson. 

*' People fulfil a relation to each other, and only know each other 
in that relation. They perform orbits around each other; each 
gyrating, too, upon his own axis, so that there are parts of the char- 
acter of each which are never brought into view of the other." 

Arthur Helps i7i Friends in Council. 



Thus the moon always shows the same side to us, and no one has 
ever seen what is on the other side. 



Judging of the Bay when the Tide is Out.— "The man who 
judges Christian theism by the errors of its sects and the vices of its 
imitators is very much like the man who, having heard a good deal 
about the ocean, sets out from his inland desert to see it, and plants 
himself where a great sewer empties into it from a populous city. 
He sits down on a dock to contemplate the muck and mire when 
the tide is out. He looks at the oyster cans and paper collars and 
dead dogs ; he surveys the sluggish refuse that bubbles and crawls 
in tepid currents, and he exclaims : 

" ' Well, is this the blue, sparkling sea, whose foam gave birth to 
Aphrodite and whose crested billows have rolled so long through 
poetry and song? It won't do.' 

" You feel like taking that man by the neck and lifting him up so 
that he can see somcthinc:." — A. C. Wheeler. 



VII: I, 2 MATTHEW 141 



But many judge not only religion and the Bible 
and churches in this false way, but their neighbors' 
character and life. 



A.». 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

JUDGING. 



Two Sides to Character.—" Whittier tells us 
of his pressed gentian, one side of which was but a 
blurred mass of crushed leaves while the other 
showed all the exquisite beauty of the flower. Life is full of similar 
two-sided views of people and of acts." — J. R. Miller. 



Judging by One Virtue. — The man of one virtue, judging all 
men by that standard, makes himself out better than an evenly- 
balanced angel with all the virtues. Men judge of the Puritans by 
their dealings with the Salem witchcraft, which lasted but a few 
months, and was partaken of by only a few ; of Calvin by the burn- 
ing of Servetus ; of the garden full of fruits and flowers by a weed 
in the corner. 

Compare Prof. Amos R. Wells' fable of the animals who wanted 
to choose a king. Each of the animals showed to the others the 
reasons why he should be elected. The lion roared the loudest ; 
the lark sang the sweetest ; the fox showed most cunning ; the kan- 
garoo leaped the farthest, and insisted that " leaping should be the 
test." We often thus select an arbitrary test of virtue, as just now 
some writers are declaring the pronunciation of "exquisite," of "in- 
teresting," and of " inquiry " are the true tests of culture. 

Compare the story of the two knights who came to the shield 
from opposite directions, so that one saw only the silver side, and 
the other only that of gold. 

In Search of the Man of Sin.— Some years ago a brilliant 
and v/itty lecturer entitled one of his lectures " In Search of the 
Man of Sin." He found sin in the city, in trade, in politics, every- 
where, but, finally returning to his native village, he found the ele- 
ments of all those sins there, and, at last looking into his own heart, 
and seeing there the seeds from which grew all the crimes he had 
attacked in others, declares, " I am the man of sin." 



Library. — Pliable, in " Pilgrim's Progress," when in the Slough of 
Despond, asks Christian if this is the blessedness he had so beautif ul-^ 



142 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII: I, 2 

ly portrayed in persuading him to undertake the journey ; Jacox's 
" Secular Annotations," Vol. I., p. 208, " Judge Not "; Arthur Helps' 
" Friends in Council," Vol. I., series 2, p. 149, " Criticism "; Words- 
worth's poems on the naming of places, " The Lady of the Mere," 
and Point Rash-Judgment is the name it bears. 



With what Measure ye Mete. — Receiving what we measure 
to others is illustrated by the well-known story of the boy and the 
echo, bearing back the words he uttered. 



Library. — In May Ellen Atkinson's volume of poems, entitled 
" The Architect of Cologne," is one poem, " My Neighbor," which 
finely sets forth the weakness and folly of judging others. A man an- 
noyed by the faults of his neighbors, first hears a mocking whisper, 

" Thou doest well to scorn him ; thou forsooth. 
So wise, so strong, Perfection's self, in truth." 

Then an angel shows him his neighbor in the arena of life striving 
among the powers of Good and Evil. First the watcher stands 
among the demons, and sees the strife from their point of view, as 
with malicious pleasure they saw his failures, proclaimed his errors 
and laughed at his wounds. In the " shadow born of hell," 

" Every ray of beauty paled and died. 
And faults and weaknesses were magnified." 

Then he went over to the angels, and standing among their radi- 
ant bands 

"... . My wondering gaze I bent 
Upon the wrestler, on whose brow there shone 
A glory I had never seen or known." 

" These angels, yea, and Christ 
Beheld the man transfigured. Weaknesses 

Were propped by faith, which for his needs sufficed, 
And proved itself more strong than mere strength is ; 
His faults forgiven fostered depth of love. 
And saintly beauty of the Blest above." 

* Starry his crown,' they said, ' and glorious ! 
When will he come to dwell and rest with us ? ' " 



VII : 3, 4 MATTHEW 143 



3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's 
eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye ? 

4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the 
mote out of thine eye ; and, behold, a beam is in thine own 
eye ? 



A.D. 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



3. Beholdest . . . Considerest. — BAeTrc^f, starest 
at from without, gazest at, examinest carefully ; Karavoelg, " appre- 
hendest from within what is already there." 



"The word mote suggests dust ; whereas the figure is that of a 

minute chip or splinter, of the same material with the beam." 

— M. R. Vincent. 

The same fault obscures the vision in both cases, but 

TheMote Qj^g jg much larsfer than the other. The pictures made to 
and the , . , .; /• ., 

Beam. represent this metaphor are necessarily failures. An 

actual beam in a real eye is an impossibility. But these 

moral monstrosities are common ; and the very failure of physical 

representation sets out the moral more vividly. 



The Two Wallets. — Jupiter is represented in classic fable as 
loading men with two wallets, one containing their own faults, and 
the other the faults of their neighbors. And men insist on carrying 
the one containing their own faults slung behind them out of sight ; 
while the other, holding their neighbor's faults, is borne in front, 
ever in sight, and often counted. 



The Telescope Reversed. — If we look through a telescope or 
spyglass in the usual way, it magnifies the object seen ; but if we 
reverse it, it makes the large and near seem very small and far away. 
We are often tempted to see our neighbor's fault through the mag- 
nifying end, and our own through the reverse. 



The Bell and the Clapper. — The clapper complained that 
the bell was cracked. " It is true," remarked a bystander, " hut you 
cracked it ; and, moreover, it would never have been known but by 
you ; you proclaim everywhere that crack in the bell." 

Dust on Your Glasses. — " Did you forget to open the windows 
when you swept, Katy ? " I inquired. " This room is very dusty." 



144 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 5 

S. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye ; and then shalt 
thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. 

" ' I think there is dust on your eyeglasses, ma'am,' she said, 
modestly. 

" And sure enough, the glasses were at fault and not Katy. I 
rubbed it off and everything was bright and clean." — Selected. 

More than one person has seen distant wonders through a tele- 
scope, no specks of dust on the lens. 



Bright Sayings. — " Ten thousand of the greatest faults in our 
neighbors are of less consequence to us than one of the smallest 
in ourselves." — Archbishop Whately. 

" To pardon those absurdities in ourselves which we cannot suffer 
in others, is neither better nor worse than to be more willing to be 
fools ourselves than to have others so." — Dean Swift. 

" He who lives in a glass house should throw no stones." *' The 
kiln calls the oven burnt house." In Italy, " the kettle says to the 
pot. Keep off, or you'll smutch me." In Spain, " the raven bawls 
hoarsely to the crow. Get out, blackamoor." In Troilus and Cress- 
ida, Ajax protests, " I do hate a proud man, as I hate the engender- 
ing of toads "; " and yet he loves himself," is the aside of Ulysses. 



Their own defects, invisible to them, 

Seen in another, they at once condemn, 

And tho' self-idolized in every case. 

Hate their own likeness in a brother's face." — Cowper. 



" O wad some power the giftie gie us, 
To see oursels as others see us ! 
It wad frae monie a blunder free us 
And foolish notion." — Bums. 

Library. — Jacox's "Secular Annotations," I., 187, and his "Scrip- 
ture Proverbs," p. 531, give many illustrations from literature. 



A leading minister of Boston, when a young man, taught a school 
which was reputed to contain some very bad boys. He conquered 



VII ; 6, 7 MATTHEW 145 



6. TI Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast 
ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their 
feet, and turn again and rend you. 

7. T] Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; 
knock, and it shall be opened unto you : 

the worst ones by simply reversing the usual plan, 

and appointed monitors to discover and report not the faults, but 

all the good things they could find in the other scholars. 



A.D 28. 

Sii turner. 
SERMON 
OX THE 
MOUNT. 

PEAKLS BEFORE 
SWINE. 



Rejoicing in Iniquity.—" An itching to find faults in others, so 
as to justify or cover up our own, is worse than the faults themselves. 
A man may be heinously wicked, but to seek to find others so is 
worse. It is an utter absence of love that rejoices in iniquity. For 
the quintessence of this, as perfected in the pure hate of the Devil, 
see Lucifer's opening speech in Mrs. Browning's ' Drama of Exile.' 
As a portrayal of Satan's real character, there is nothing equal to it 
in literature. We are not to point out, but to pull out, wickedness." 

— Bishop Warren. 

6. Library. — "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs "; Shakes- 
peare's " Tempest," where Prospero felt that the jewel of kindness 
was thrown away on the brutish Caliban, 

" Abhorred slave ; 
Which any print of goodness will not take, 
Being capable of all ill." 



Pearls before Swine. 

" I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs 
By the known rules of ancient liberty. 
When straight a barbarous noise environs me 
Of owls, and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs . . . 
But this is got by casting pearls to hogs." 



7. Reference. See on chapter vi. 5, 6, " Prayer .** 

The Key of Promise.—" There is a parable related by the Rev. 
Mark Guy Pearse, of a distressed city with inhabitants in dire need, 



146 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 8 



8. For every one that asketh receiveth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him 
that knocketh it shall be opened. 

while above it, on the hill-top, stood a palace, containing everything 
they could want. They were poor and wretched, sick and sad, when 
so near were stores of silver and gold, joy and health. But the gate 
was locked, and Pity was in despair until he remembered that once he 
had possessed the key ; recovering this master key, he found by its 
use all the riches of the palace at his disposal — its name was prayer." 

— Sunday Companion. 

Library. — " Pilgrim's Progress," Christian and Hopeful in the 
dungeon of Giant Despair, and finding the Key of Promise. 



" Like an echo from a ruined castle, prayer is an echo from the 
ruined human soul of the sweet promise of God." — Arnot. 



Electric Calls. — The better class of houses in our cities are 
often fitted up so that the owner, by touching a button, can summon 
a cab ; by touching another, summon the police ; by another, the fire 
department; by another, a messenger ; and through the telephone he 
can order the family supplies. In our latest hotels there is an 
arrano^ement in each room that enables the guest to set a pointer 
to any one of a large number of the commonest wants, and then 
touch a button, and the desired object will be brought to him. 



Casket of Promises. — " Where is thy casket of promises } Bring 
it out. Open the jar of jewels. Pour out the golden ingots, stamped 
with the image and superscription of heaven's King. Count over 
the diamonds that flash in thy hand like stars. Compute the weight 
of that single jewel, ' Ask and ye shall receive ' ; or that other 
ruby, ' All things work together for good to them that love God.' 
Bring forth that royal Kohinoor, ' He that believeth 

Promises shall be saved.' Then remember who it is that gave 

like 
Jewels. them, and to what an unworthy sinner, and tell me if 

they are not * exceeding great and precious.* When 

Caesar once gave a man a great reward, he exclaimed, ' This is 

too great a gift for me to receive.' ' But,' said Caesar, ' it is not 

too great a gift for me to give.' So the smallest promise in thy 



VII 



MATTHEW 



147 



9. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, 
will he give him a stone ? 

casket is too much for thee to deserve ; yet the 
most magnificent promise is not too great for the 
King of kings to bestow. God scorns to act meanly 
or stingily by his children." — Spurgeon. 



A.D. 28. 

Su77itner. 
SEKMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

A8K AND 
RECEIVE. 



Frederick Douglass used to say that, when a slave, he often prayed 
for freedom, but his prayer was never answered till he prayed with 
his feet. 



Prayer for Temporal Blessings, How Answered.— In reply 
to the question, " What place has prayer for temporal blessings in 
your system of natural law in the spiritual world ? ' Professor Drum- 
mond, as reported, said, in one of his talks at Lakeview : "A large, 
splendidly equipped steamship sailed out from Liverpool for New 
York. Among the passengers were a little boy and girl, who were 
playing about the deck, when the boy lost his ball overboard. He 
immediately ran to the captain and shouted, ' Stop the ship, my ball 
is overboard ! ' The captain smiled pleasantly, but said, ' Oh, no, my 
boy ! I cannot stop the ship, with all these people, just to get a rubber 
ball.' The boy went away grumbling, and confided to the little girl 
that it was his opinion the captain didn't stop the ship because he 
couldn't. He believed the ship was wound up some way in Liver- 
pool, and she just had to run, day and ni^ht, until she ran down. 
A day or so afterwards the children were playing on deck again, 
when the little girl dropped her doll down into the 
engine-room, and she supposed it too had gone over- ^*y^ p^ 
board. She said, ' I will run and ask the captain to stop prayer"^ 
the ship and get my dolly.' * It's no use,' said the boy ; 
' he cannot do anything. I've tried him.' But the little girl ran on 
to the captain with her story and appeal. The captain came and 
peeked down into the engine-room, and, seeing the doll, "said, 'Just 
wait here a minute." And while the ship went right on, he ran down 
the stairway and brought up the little girl's doll, to her delight and 
to the boy's amazement. The next day the cry rang out, ' Man over- 
board ! ' and immediately the bell rang in the engine-room, by orders 
from the lever in the hands of the captain ; the great ship stood 
still until boats were lowered and the life rescued. Then she 



148 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 10 



lo. Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent ? 



Steamed on until she reached her wharf in New York. As soon as 
the ship was tied up, the captain went up town and bought the boy 
a better ball than the one he had lost. Now, each of the three 
prayers was answered. The little girl received her request without 
stopping the ship ; the little boy by a little waiting received his also ; 
and yet for sufficient reason the ship was stopped by a part of the 
machinery itself, not an after-thought, but something put into the 
ship when it was made." 

Why Some Prayers not Answered.—" Certainly all the ' pre- 
tence ' prayers must go among the eternal strays. Like many letters 
which never reach their destination, many prayers have to be marked 
* missent,' or with some other fatal brand, and consigned to obliv- 
ion. Sometimes prayers remain unanswered because they are not 
directed right — not addressed to God, but to the audience. Other 
prayers never * go through ' because the address is illegible. They 
are too full of pomp and rhetorical flourish— mere 'monologues of 
flowery prose.' Other prayers get lost because they are * unavailable 
matter' — prayers whose answers might gra.tiiy us, but would fall like 
showers of daggers on our neighbors — and so are denied passage 
through the divine channels, as sharp-edged tools, corroding acids, 
explosives, and the like, are not allowed in the mails. No legally 
'stamped,' sincerely directed, and well-meaning prayer is ever lost. 
The answer may be delayed, but the prayer is * on file.' " — Anon. 



The Dead-Prayer Office. — "What becomes of all the unan- 
swered letters ? Thousands of them find their way to the dead-letter 
office. Some never reach the person for whom they are intended 
because the postage is not paid ; some fail because they are directed 
to the wrong office ; some cannot be sent because the address is illegi- 
ble ; and some because the matter enclosed is unmailable. These float 
through the mails, are examined at different offices, marked ' missent,' 
and finally they fall into the dead-letter office. There they are opened 
and read, and, if valuable, are forwarded ; if not, they are given to the 
flames. Such is the accuracy and skill of the postal officials that very 
few valuable letters ever fail of reaching their destination. Some 
prayers never reach God because they are not addressed to God's office. 
They are directed to the audience. God's office is not in our neigh- 



VII: II »L\TTHEW 119 



A.I>. 28. 

SEP.MOX 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



II. If ye then being evil, know bovr to g:iTe good gifts unto 
your children, how much more shall vour Father which is in 
heaven give good things to them tha t ask him ? 

bor's care, and if we direct our prayers to that point 
they will certainly go to the dead-prayer office. 
Each of the reasons why letters go to the dead- 
letter ofl5ce will hold good of unanswered prayers. But no really 
valuable prayer with a heart's message in it ever fails of its destina- 
tion, or goes unanswered." — Christian Advocate. 



The Disappointed Pray-er.— " I happened once to be staying 
with a gentleman, and a ver\- religious kind of a man he was. In 
the morning he began the day with a long family prayer that we 
might be kept from sin, and might have a Christ-like spirit, and the 
mind that was also in Christ Jesus. A good prayer it was, and I 
thought, ' What a good kind of a man you must be I ' But about an 
hour after I happened to be coming along the farm, and I heard him 
hallooing, and scolding, and going on finding fault with ever\-body 
and ever}'thing. And when I came into the house with him he 
began again. Nothing was right, and he was so impatient and so 
quick-tempered. 

*' I said, ' You must be ver}' much disappointed, sir.' 

" ' How so, Daniel — disappointed ? ' 

"' I thought you were expecting to receive a verj' valuable present 
this morning, sir, and I see it has not come.' 

" ' Present, Daniel I ' and he scratched his head, as much as to say, 
' Whatever can the man be talking about ? ' 

" ' I certainly heard you talking about it, sir,' I said coolly. 

" ' Heard me speak of a valuable present I Why, Daniel, you must 
be dreaming. I've have never thought of such a thing.' 

" ' Perhaps not, sir, but you have talked about it, and I hoped it 
would come whilst I was here, for I would dearly love to see it.' 

" He was getting angry with me now, so I thought I would explain. 

" 'You know, sir, this morning you prayed for a Christ-like spirit, 
and the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and the love of God shed 
abroad in your heart.' 

" ' Oh, that's what you mean, is it ? ' and he spoke as if that weren't 
anjthing at all. 

" 'Now, sir, wouldn't you be rather surprised if your prayer was 



150 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII: II 

to be answered — if your were to feel a nice, gentle, loving kind of 
spirit coming down upon you, all patient and forgiving and kind ? ' " 

— Mark Guy Pearse in Daniel Quorm. 



DELAYS' ARE NOT DENIALS. — The answers are often long prepar- 
ing. As one prays for fruit, and the answer is begun by the planting 
of a seed, followed by the nurture of sun and rain. But the fruit 
must grow and ripen before it can be eaten. Familiar examples are 
found in every good reform, in the history of Christianity, in the 
growth of character. '_ 

Prayer and Natural Law. — God, in answering prayer, does 
not need to break the laws of nature, but only to use them by His 
own will, just as we can will to use them in our lesser sphere. 

" When the loose mountain trembles from on high. 
Shall gravitation cease if you go by } 
Or some old temple, nodding to its fall, 
For Chartres' head reserve the hanging wall }** 

God can guide His people away from the loose mountains or over- 
hanging wall. So Professor Tyndall has said that to answer a prayer 
for rain would require as great a change in the lav/s of nature, as it 
would to roll the St. Lawrence up the falls of Niagara. But there 
is no need of changing the laws of nature to answer a 
Tyndall prayer for rain. All that is necessary is to use the laws, 
p *" not break them. If I need a shower on my lawn, I turn 

the water on to the hose and produce a shower. Can- 
not God do on a large scale what any of us can do on a small scale } 
A child is caught in the machinery of a great factory ; to reverse 
that machinery by its own laws would be a great cost and labor. 
But the owner can turn off a band and rescue the child in a moment. 
Cannot God do as much with the machinery of the universe ? 



BiNGHAMTON Water-Works. — " The building we entered (at 
Binghamton, N. Y.) was furnished with a Holley engine. As we 
stood by the steam-gauge we observed constant and considerable 
changes in the amount of steam produced. As there was no cause 
apparent in or about the engine itself, we asked for an explanation. 
* That,' said the engineer, ' is done by the people in the city. As 
they open their faucets to draw the water, the draft upon our fires is 



A.D. 28. 

Summer . 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

PRAYEK. 



VII: II MATTHEW ■ 151 

increased. As they close them, it is diminished, -i" 
The smallest child can change the movements of 
our engine according to his will. It was the de- 
sign of the maker to adjust his engine so that it 
should respond perfectly to the needs of the peo- 
ple, be they great or small.' Just then the bell ^ 
rung, the furnace-drafts flew open, the steam rose 
rapidly in the gauge, the engineer flew to his post, the ponderous 
machinery accelerated its movement. We heard a gen- 
eral alarm of fire. ' How is that,' we asked. ' That,' ^utomatic 
1- J t 1 ■ r £ 1 . Machinery, 

he said, 'was the openmg of some great fire-plug. 

'And how about the bell? What did that ring for?' * That,' he 
said, * was to put us on the alert. You saw that the firemen began 
to throw on coal at once.* (How much more will God's heart re- 
spond to every prayer of His creatures. That engine was one of the 
grandest triumphs of science ; the power of the prayer of faith is one 
of the greatest triumphs of divine wisdom and love.)" 

—Prof, J. P. Gulliver. 



The Clock. — It is not uncommon to see a clock which marks not 
only the hours but the days of the month. It is so made that when 
a month has only thirty days the pointer will skip over the 31, and 
in February will move from February 28th to March ist. Even 

leap-year is noted, and in February of those years the 

• : 1 ^ .X. ^ ^yr u r- The Clock, 

pomter marks 29, and then moves to March ist. Com- 
pare the famous Strasburg clock. The maker does not have to inter- 
fere, but he made the works originally so that when years later these 
changes should be necessary, the right movements would take place. 
May not the All-wise have made His universe so that the working 
out of His laws would answer prayer when the need came, and have 
prepared from the first the storm that wrecked the Armada, or that 
drove the ship to the help of a drowning mariner ? 



Three Ways in Which Prayer is Answered : 
First Answer. — In the praying itself is an answer, the commun- 
ion with God that comes through prayer, just as we become ac- 
quainted with our families and friends through various forms of ask- 
ing and receiving. This is the best answer to prayer. 



The Small Boat and Large Ship. — The small boat trying to 
draw the great ship to itself, is itself drawn to the ship far more than 



152 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII: II 

the ship is moved toward the boat. But they come together ; and 
that is the object desired. 

The SUPPLIANT.—Archbishop Trench, in his poem, "The Sup- 
pliant," represents a man as praying all night. When the morning 
dawns without an answer, the Tempter stands by him and says : 

" Oh, peace ! What profit do you gain 

From empty words and babblings vain ! 
* Come, Lord ; oh, come ! ' you cry alway ; 

You pour your heart out night and day ; 

Yet still no murmur of reply ; 

No voice that answers, ' Here am I.' " 

He yielded and ceased praying. Then an angel came, and, learning 
the reason, exclaimed : 

" Oh, dull of heart ! enclosed doth lie 
In each ' Come, Lord ! ' a ' Here am 1/ 
Thy love, thy longing are not thine, 
Reflections of a love divine : 
Thy very prayer to thee was given 
Itself a messenger from heaven." 



Second Method of Answering. — There is a giving of the ex- 
act thing we ask for, in all cases where direct promises are made, or 
where it would be good for us to receive it ; but not always in the 
way or at the time we may set. 

Library. — Longfellow's Poems, " Sandalphon." 

" And he gathers the prayers as he stands 
And they change into flowers in his hands,— 

Into garlands of purple and red ; 
And beneath the great arch of the portal. 
Through the streets of the City Immortal. 

Is wafted the fragrance they shed." — Longfellow. 



Dr. Judson's Experience. — Dr. Adoniram Judson says : "I never 
was deeply interested in any object, I never prayed sincerely and 
earnestly for anything, but it came, at some time, no matter at how 
distant a day, in some how, in some shape probably the last I should 
have devised, it came." 



VII: II MATTHEW 153 

^ 



A.D. 28. 

Summer. 
SEEM OX 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

PRAYER. 



Ye Shall Receive.—" Suppose that in the dead 
of winter, when the thermometer is down at zero, 
a man who has been stuck for twenty- four hours 
in a drift manages to get to my house at midnight 
and rings the bell. I go to the window and say, 

' Who is there } ' ' Mr. , I have been in a snow- •J 

bank twenty-four hours, and I am dying. Won't 
you help me ? ' ' Well,' I say, ' I have a fixed rule never to open my 
door until morning, but you just keep on knocking; it will do you 
good ; it is a healthy exercise.' That is a fair illustration of the way 
some people would have us look at prayer. Christ says, ' Ask and 
ye shall receive.' " — D. L. Moody. 



Third Method of Answer.— As many times the exact thing 
we ask for, in the form we ask for it, would be the worst thing for 
us, and what we really do not want ; therefore, in such cases God 
gives us the spirit of our prayer, what we really would have asked 
for had we known all things as he does. A child asks for a white 
powder he sees, thinking it sugar, when in reality it is poison. The 
parent refuses the poison and gives real sugar instead. He, not in a 
literal form, but a thousand times more really, gives what the child 
asks for. So does God with us, and so at last we shall see that e^jery 
true prayer is really answered. 



Library.— J. R. Miller's "Silent Times," p. 73, "The Blessing of 
Not Getting." 

" Strive ; yet I do not promise 

The prize you dream of to-day 
Will not fade when you think to grasp it, 

And melt in your hand away ; 
But another and holier treasure, 

You would now, perchance, disdain 
Will come when your toil is over, 

And pay you for all your pain. 

" Wait, yet I do not tell you 
The hour you long for now 
Will not come with its radiance vanished, 
And a shadow upon its brow ; 



164 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII: II 

Yet far through the misty future. 

With a crown of starry light, 
An hour of joy, you know not 

Is winging her silent flight. 

" Pray ; though the gift you ask for 

May never comfort your fears. 
May never repay your pleading, — 

Yet pray, and with hopeful tears ; 
An answer, not that you long for, 

But diviner, will come one day ; 
Your eyes are too dim to see it. 

Yet strive, and wait, and pray." 



Ignorant Asking. — " As the heathen poet says, * The gods have 
overthrown whole houses at their own desire,' and as our own Shakes- 
peare sings : 

" ' We, ignorant of ourselves. 
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers 
Deny us for our good ; so find we profit 
By losing of our prayers.' " 



Library.— " The Choir Invisible," p. 257, on the "Blessings of 
Defeat." 



Blessings of Unanswered Prayer. — "Some time ago the 
beautiful daughter of wealthy parents failed to appear one morning 
at breakfast. The parents, alarmed, forced the door of her room 
and found her apparently dying with a bottle labeled ' Poison ' in her 
hand. Almost frantic with grief the father hastened to the drug- 
gist's and demanded information as to what the bottle had con- 
tained. The druggist bade the father fear nothing. The young lady 
had asked him for some poison, but he had feared to give it to her or 
to let her go to another druggist, and so had substituted an innocent 
mixture. After several hours of sleep the young lady awoke, to the 
unutterable joy of her family, and with them thanked God that her 
request had been denied. A wife once prayed for the recovery of 
her husband from illness and stamped her feet, saying, with frightful 
emphasis, ' I will not have him die ; God shall not take him ! ' Her 
prayer was answered ; but a few years afterward the community was 



VII: II MATTHEW 155 

shocked by the fact that he, in a moment of anger, 
had killed her." — E. S. Lewis, D.D. 



A.D. 2S. 

Summer. 

SERMON 
ON THE 

Library. — In the charming little booklet, mount. 

Expectation Comer," Adam Slowman was led 
into the Lord's treasure houses, and among many 
other wonders there revealed to him was the Delayed Blessings 
Office, where God kept certain things prayed for until the wise time 
came to send them. " It takes a long time for some pensioners to 

learn that delays are not denials Ah, there are secrets of love 

and wisdom in the ' Delayed Blessings Department ' which are little 
dreamt of. Men would pluck their mercies green when the Lord 
would have them ripe." Therefore the Lord will WAIT, that he may 
be gracious unto you (Isa. xxx. i8). 



Stonewall Jackson's Prayer. — I remember well hearing it 
objected to the doctrine of prayer, that, while we at the North were 
praying for the success of our armies, the pious Gen. Stonewall 
Jackson was praying with equal faith for the success of the South. 
It was said that both prayers could not be answered. But in fact 
both were answered. For Stonewall Jackson really wanted the true 
success and prosperity of the South. He thought he saw it in the 
success of their arms ; but God knew that in the failure of their 
arms, and in the success of liberty and the abolition of slavery, was 
the true success of the South. And without doubt, to-day Stone- 
wall Jackson in heaven is thanking God for the way in which He 
answered his prayers. So will it be found true of all sincere prayer 
that seems for the time to be unanswered. 

" In spite of many broken dreams, 
This have I truly learned to say : 
The prayers I thought unanswered once 
Were answered in God's own best way." 



Praying for the Wrong Train. — I was one hastening toward 
a strange station and it was of no little importance that I should get 
the train. It had already arrived as we came in sight. I prayed 
with heart and feet that I might reach it, and I gained my desire. 
But it was the wrong train. It took me swiftly past the place where 
I wished to stop. I had abundant leisure to think how it illustrated 



166 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 12 

12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them : for this is the law and the prophets. 

some of our prayers. We pray for the wrong train. God knows it 
will not bring us to the place we are seeking, and in seeming not to 
answer us, He is really giving us that which we ask. 

Compare Saxe's Poems, " The Man who made his own Weather." 



Prayer the Rope in the Belfry.—" Prayer is the rope in the 
belfry ; we pull it, and it rings the bell up in heaven. Keep on pull- 
ing it, and, though the belL is up so high that you cannot hear it 
ring, depend upon it, it can be heard in the tower of heaven, and is 
ringing before the throne of God, who will give you answers of peace 
according to your faith." — Christmas Evans. 



Prayer like Perfume. — " Perfume is the breath of flowers, the 
sweetest expression of their inmost being, an exhalation of their 
very life. It is a sign of perfect purity, health and vigor, — for dis- 
ease and decay and death yield not pleasant, but revolting odors, — 
and such fragrance is in nature what prayer is in the human world. 
Prayer is the breath of life, the expression of the soul's best, holiest, 
and heavenliest aspirations, the symptom and token of its spiritual 
health." — MacMillan, 

" But still more beautiful is the thought that true prayer is itself 
fragrance to God, that he delights in it as we delight in the perfume 
of sweet flowers." — J, R. Miller y in Practical Religion, 

Reference. See on Matt. xxi. 21, 



12. " Only the Golden Rule can bring the Golden Age/' 

Frances Willard, 

" As Thyself, not as much as thyself, but in the same way as he 
loves himself, in the same manner, with the same objects in view. 
It is not the as of degree, but the as of kind. The comparison has 
respect not to quantity y but to quality." 

— Prof. Geo. Harris, D.D., in Moral Evolution. 



VII: 13, 14 MATTHEW 157 



13, Enter ye in at the strait gate : for wide is the gate, and 
broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there 
be which go in thereat : 

14. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which 
leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 



A.JD. 28. 

SumTner. 

SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

THE STRAIT 
GATE. 



The sun sheds the same kind of light upon 
a flower as upon a tree, upon a rock as upon a mountain. 



Golden Rule in the Stock Exchange, — In his " Sermons in 
Candles," Mr. Spurgeon says that he heard that once the Golden 
Rule got out of the church where it was frescoed on the walls, and 
wandered down to the Stock Exchange, where it made a great disturb- 
ance and was quickly hustled out of the door. Then Mr. Spurgeon 
says, perhaps that was not the place , it was the Cattle Market, or, 
perhaps, j^z^r store, and its light is as often disliked in front of the 
counter as behind it, by buyers as by sellers. Lying is everywhere, 
and wherever it is, it belongs to the father of lies or his children. 



13. Enter in at the Strait Gate. — In a book of symbolic 
pictures there is one of the strait and narrow gate. The gateway 
in the wall (and there is no other way through it) was just large 
for a man to go through kneeling. One man is trying to 
go through with great bags of money unjustly obtained Picture of 
but they will not pass. Another grasps the world in his !. ^^^ 
arms, but it is too large to go through the gate. Still 
another has huge bales of rags labeled " self-righteousness," but he 
cannot get through the gate with them. Another passed through 
only by leaving his rum-bottles, which lie broken at the bottom of 
the hill by the gate. There is room for any man, but there is not 
room for the smallest sin to pass. 



The Picture is that of two cities, one the New Jerusalem the 
City of God ; the other the City of Destruction, such as Bunyan 
describes. 

Reference. " That leadeth to destruction. " See on Judas xviii. 6. 



14. Strait is the Gate . . . which leadeth unto Life. — Why 
is the gate to heaven so narrow ? It is from the very nature of things. 



158 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII: 13,14 

It cannot be otherwise. But note, the gate is open, wide open, and 

the whole world is invited to enter. In Revelation the 

Why the Q^^y ^f q^^ jg pictured with twelve f^ates, four on each 

Gate IS -^ ^ ^ ,. . 

Narrow. Side, to express the wide welcome from every direction, 

for every race and condition. They are never shut, but 
each one of these gates is so narrow that " there shall in no wise 
enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh 
abomination, or maketh a lie ; but they which are written in the 
Lamb's book of life " (Rev. xxi. 27). 



Library. — The wicket gate in " Pilgrim's Progress," and the 
many ways in which Christian had to strive in order to enter. 



The Narrow Gate. — The narrowness of the gate is not confined 
to the kingdom of God, or to virtue. It belongs to all the best good. 
There is one direction to the north star, and a million directions 
away from it. One would like to join the choir, but the gate is 
narrow. No one can really enter it without learning to sing, no 
matter how many other things he may do. 



Gates to the Best Things must be Narrow. — (i) " Here is 
the kingdom of human learning : Knowledge, critical acquaintance 
with letters, ample and accurate information about history, power of 
scientific inquiry, collation, analysis, all that is known by the name 
of learning ; and over the gate of that kingdom I find this inscrip- 
tion, ' Strait is the gate, narrow is the way.' " (2) " Here is a little 
kingdom which we shall characterize as the kingdom of merely 
muscular competition. Men are going to try muscular force with 
their fellow-men — they are going to have a boat race. You and I 
cannot walk along the river side and instantly take into our heads 
the notion that we will have a spin with these men and beat them 
all. That can't be done. Strait is the gate and narrow is the way 
that leads even to athletic supremacy." (3). " Here, for example, is 
a man who wishes to excel in authorship. You read his book. You 
don't see all that lies behind the book. What is it that is written 
over the man's study and over the man's desk ? This : * Strait is the 
gate, narrow is the way.' " — Joseph Parker. 



" Seest thou not then a little door, and a way before the door, 
which is not crowded, but very few travel it ? This is the way into 



VII: 13, 14 MATTHEW 159 

true culture." — Cebes (a contemporary of Socrates), 

in the Fznax, quoted by Prof. Vincent. A.D. 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 

Classic Parallels. — Images somewhat cor- mount. 

° TT . 1 ,, THE TWO WAYS. 

respondmg are also quoted from " Hesiod : 
" Evil we may seize upon even in multitudes 
with ease ; the way to it is smooth, and it lies very near. But 
the immortal gods have placed sweat at the entrance to virtue, and 
long and straight is the path to it, and rough at first ; but when you 
come to the summit then it grows easy." And from " Philo ": " A 
road worn by men and beasts, and suited for riding horses and driv- 
ing chariots, is very similar to pleasure ; while the ways of prudence 
and temperance, and the other virtues, even if not impassable, are 
yet wholly unworn, for small is the number of those who walk on 
them." — Broadus. 
Compare 2 Esdras vii. 6-14, and Ecclesiasticus xxi. 10. 



The Two Ways.— Pythagoras compares life to the letter Y, early 
branching out into two ways. When I was a child my mother used 
to draw for me a simple picture of two diverging paths starting from 
the same point, one narrow, rising up toward heaven, the other 
broad and descending toward the pit. It was easy to leave the 
broad road and cross to the upward path at the beginning, for the 
distance was short and the obstacles few ; but not so easy as to start 
from the first in the right way. But the farther one traveled in the 
downward way, the greater the distance to the heavenly road. The 
obstacles grew more obstructive, the rivers broader, the mountains 
higher, the morasses more miry and extended, and fierce beasts 
haunted the wilds. 

" As once toward heaven my face was set. 
I came unto a place where two ways met. 
One led to Paradise and one away ; 
And fearful of myself lest I should stray, 

I paused that I might know 
Which was the way wherein I ought to go. 
The first was one my weary eyes to please. 
Winding along thro' pleasant fields of ease, 
Beneath the shadows of fair branching trees. 



160 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII ; I3, I4 

* This path of calm and solitude 
Surely must lead to heaven,' I cried. 

In joyous mood. 

* Yon rugged one, so rough for weary feet, 
The footpath of the world's too busy street, 
Can never be the narrow way of life.' 

But at that moment I thereon espied 
A footprint bearing trace of having bled, 
And knew it for the Christ's, so bowed my head, 
And followed where He led." 



Hercules' Choice.— " When Hercules had grown up, he went 
out into a solitary place to muse over his future course of life. After 
a while he saw two female figures approaching : the one in white 
apparel, with a noble aspect, open and innocent ; the other painted 
and bedizened, and looking to see if people looked at her. This 
last was the first to accost him : * O Hercules, I see that you are 
perplexed about your path in life. If you will make a friend of 
me, I shall conduct you by the smoothest and most charming road. 
You will not be troubled with business, or battles, or tasks of any 
kind ; but your whole study shall be where to find the best wines 
and the nicest dishes, the newest scents and the most fashionable 
clothes, the merriest companions and the most exciting amuse- 
ments.' ' And pray, madam,' said Hercules, ' what may be your 
name .'* ' * My name,' she replied, ' is Pleasure, although my enemies 
have nicknamed me Vice.' Then said the other, ' Hercules, I am 
sure you are capable of noble deeds ; but I must not deceive you 
with delusive promises. As the Higher Powers have arranged the 
world, you can hope for nothing good without labor. If you want 
the gods to be your friends, you must serve them ; if you want to 
be loved, you must make yourself useful ; if you want to be honored 
by Greece, you must do it some great service.' Then Hercu'les rose 
up to follow Virtue along the rugged path to immortality." 

— Hamilton, 



The Line of Least Resistance. — " It is one of the great laws of 
the material universe that all movement must take place along the 
line of least resistance. One of the great thinkers of our day has 
set up the theory that this is equally applicable to human life, that 



VII: 13, 14 MATTHEW 161 



A.D. 28. 

Sumtner. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

THE TWO WATS 



all man's life has to be along the line of least 
resistance, and that it is right for it to be. This 
does not seem exactly the Master's counsel. ' Go 
in at the narrow gate,' he says, ' not at the 
wide one '; ' Take the hard way, not the easy 

one.' Which is right ? It is worth a little look- 4. 4. 

ing into. 

" Now, first of all, get a clear idea of what this great physical law 
is — of all movement having to be ' on the line of least resistance.' 
Watch the law in its very simplest illustrations. Pour a little water 
on the ground and notice what becomes of it. Its little streams 
move slowly in this or that direction as if feeling about. What are 
they feeling for } Simply for the lines of least resistance — the direc- 
tions in which there is least to obstruct its flow. When a gun is 
fired the force of the charge is really equal all round, but is obliged 
to take action along the barrel because that is the line on which there 
is least resistance. So, when a steam boiler bursts, the direction of the 
explosion is settled by the same law. It seems a simple matter. 
But when you watch these things, you see in operation one of the 
mighty laws which have helped to mould, which is helping to de- 
velop the universe ! These planets find their circling orbit through 
the illimitable world spaces not in a perfect circle, but just where 
the balancing and counteracting attractions of sun and stars leave 
the least resistance to that unknown force which impels them on. 
The great air currents, by which the signal service watchers can fore- 
cast a hot spell or a cold wave, move hither and thither guided by the 
same unerring law. The subterranean fires upheave and rend the 
earth into volcanoes at the point where the overlying crust offers 
least resistance. 

"So, then, the question comes: Is this law of motion on the line 
of least resistance a law which man ought to set before himself? It 
seems curious that as soon as man comes to his own voluntary life he 
should have to break off from the law which has brought him so far, 
but so it is. From the moment man becomes a self-conscious being, 
thinking of his own actions, and thinking of the right and wrong of 
them — from that moment — no more life merely on the line of least 
resistance. From that moment all the further progress of life, and 
all the dignity and moral worth of life, maybe almost said to depend 
on his living, not on the line of least resistance, but the very con- 
trary, on the line of most resistance, in many cases." 

—Rev. Brooke Hereford, D.D., Newspaper Report of Ser7non, 



162 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII: 15,16 

15. ^ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but in- 
wardly they are ravening wolves. 

16. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs 
of thistles ? 

15. False Prophets in Sheep's Clothing. — However the 
sheep and the wolf in sheep's clothing may seem alike, when they 
make a noise or run or eat, or express any of their likings, they show 
what they are. 

" It is when 'the devil is dressed in his Sunday best,* not when he 
comes out with horns, tail, and hoofs in full sight, that you must 
look out for mischief." — Henry Clay Trumbull. 



Library. — Ruskin's " Sesame and Lilies," where he interprets the 
expression, "blind mouths," from Milton's "Comus." Tennyson's 
*' Sea Dreams " has a picture of the false prophet. For many illus- 
trative examples of animals simulating rocks, leaves, branches, etc., 
in order to deceive those on which they would prey, see Prof. Drum- 
mond's " Tropical Africa," " Mimicry: the Ways of African Insects." 

Reference. See xxiii. 13, "On Hypocrites." 



Ravening Wolves. — apTvayec, those who snatch by force, who 
plimder, hunger greedily after sheep, not to feed, but to destroy. 
The Harpies of Greek mythology are named from this word. 



16. Ye Shall Know Them by Their Fruits.— This is the 
infallible test. In the Parliament of Religion the theories of re- 
ligion were presented and seemed so beautiful, but the 
The Test 

real test of their value would have been in bringing to- 
gether the people made by the religion, the practical results. When 
some one said to Wendell Phillips that Hindooism was as good as 
Christianity, he replied, " India is the answer." 



The Test of Fruit. — "The infallible test of all religious teach- j 
ing is its practical result in the lives of those that receive it. Thej 
answer to modern eulogists of Buddhism and Confucianism is Indis 
and China ; the answer to the papal claim of infallibility is Spain and! 
Italy ; the answer to the eulogists of ' pure reason ' and a Bible over-j 
thrown, is Paris during the Revolution and Paris during the Cum J 



VII : I/, 1 8 MATTHEW 163 



17. Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but a 
corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 

18. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a 
corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 



A.D. 28. 

Sutttjner. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 

THE TREE AND 
ITS FRUIT. 



mune. New England is the best refutation of 

those that sneer at Puritanism ; and Christendom, 

contrasted with the heathen world, is a short but conclusive reply 

to all advocates of a universal and eclectic religion. — Abbott. 

Reference. See on Matt xi. 2-6. 



17. Every Good Tree bringeth forth Good Fruit. — It is a 
very strange fact that from the same soil, by means of the same sun- 
shine and rain, under the same culture, different fruit will be pro- 
duced by different trees. So that, as they well knew, the 
only way to have good fruit was to have a tree which Different 
naturally produced good fruit. The only way to have l^^ 1 ^^^ 
good fruit in our lives is to have good hearts and princi- soil. 
pies of righteousness. All changes in government, in 
society, in circumstances, may aid good hearts to bring forth more 
fruit and better fruit, as is often seen by experiments in fields and 
gardens. Grapes grown in certain sunny positions are much more 
luscious than others. But no soil or sunshine can make grapes grow 
on bramble bushes. There is no hope of reformation in the world 
by any means that does not include new hearts. 



Good Tree, Corrupt Tree. — " As to the good tree and the cor- 
rupt tree, there is a wild olive and a wild orange, and also a wild tree 
to represent almost every one of the good fruit-trees of Palestine. 
If grafted when young, a good tree will result ; but if by mistake or 
ignorance one is left to the fruiting time before being found out, it 
has to suffer the axe, and most welcome is it to the fire in a country 
where good fuel is scarce." — Prof. Isaac Hall. 



Note the difference in trees as to the time when the fruit appears ; 
in some trees very early, in others after a long time. The fruit 
when green is very different from the same fruit when ripe. The 
blossoms, however fragrant and beautiful, are not fruit. We must 



164 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : I9-23 



19. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into 
the fire. 

20. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 

2T. T[ Not every one that saith unto nie, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom 
of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 

22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy 
name ? and in thy name have cast out devils ? and in thy name done many won- 
derful works ? 

23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you : depart from me, ye that 
work iniquity. 

often wait a whole generation before we can see the real results of 
certain teachings. _____ 

19. Is Hewn Down. — Every tree in Palestine is taxed, and if any 
fails to bear fruit it becomes an expense, and is cut down. 



21. Not every One that Saith .... but He that Doeth.— 
" Yesterday we visited a famous art gallery, the Museum of Amster- 
dam. Among the many pictures we particularly noticed two or 
three large paintings of old Dutch Burgomasters who had distin- 
guished themselves in some way, I know not how. 

" In each picture were as many as a dozen faces, and of each 
burgomaster the artist took pains to show not only the face, but the 
hands. One would be gesturing, another pointing, an- 
Hands^ Other holding out his hands as if to shake hands. Each 
own m ^^^ assumed a different posture ; and though the can- 
vas was very much crowded, and the artist had little more 
than room to paint the heads, he was always careful to give each 
head a pair of hands, though no other part of the body appeared. 

" His idea evidently was that for the portrayal of character the 
hands must be seen ; that the fingers and palms were no less signifi- 
cant than eyes and nose and mouth. 

" I am inclined to agree with that Dutch artist. Before knowing 
a person we must ask about his ha7ids. What does he do ? " 

—Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D., in Golden Rule. 



22. In Thy Name done many Wonderful Works. 



Library. — The tract, " Noah's Carpenters," who helped to build 
the ark but did not enter it ; " The Choir Invisible," by James Lane 
Allen, has some excellent illustrations about doing, pp. 76, jy. 



VII : 24-2/ MATTHEW 165 



A.D. 28. 

Summer. 
SERMON 
ON THE 
MOUNT. 



THE HOUSE ON 
THE ROCK. 



24. 11^ Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, 
and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built 
his house upon a rock : 

25. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the 
winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell not : for it 
was founded upon a rock. 

26. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and 

doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foohsh man, which built his house upon the 
sand : 

27. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat 
upon that house ; and it fell : and great was the fall of it. 

24-27. The Rain Descended. — " The rains and floods and winds 

of an Eastern monsoon afford a striking illustration of this passage. 

When people in those regions speak of the strength of a house, it is 

not by affirming, ' It will last so many years,' but, ' It will outstand 

the rains : it will not be injured by the floods." For 

several months there is not a drop of rain, and the burningf ^^^'^^ *•* 
1 J 1 -. 1 • , 1 ^'^ , ^ the East, 

sun has loosened the ground on which the edifice stands ; 

then all at once the torrents begin to descend, the chapped earth 

suddenly swells, and the change injures the foundations. Only the 

house founded upon a rock can outstand the rains and floods of a 

wet monsoon." — Roberts' Oriental Illustrations. 



What Trembled and what Stood.—" Mr. .Moody, in his Chris- 
tian convention at North field, said : ' We want more Christians like 
the Irishman who, when asked if he didn't tremble during a certain 
storm when he was standing out upon a rocky eminence, said, * Yes, 
my legs trembled, but the rock didn't, and because my feet were on 
the rock I felt safe.' " — Biblical Illustrator. 



Eddystone Lighthouse. — When the Eddystone lighthouse was 
to be rebuilt, Winstanley, the noted engineer, contracted to rear a 
structure which should withstand the assaults of time and tempests. 
So confident was his faith in the showy structure of his own skill, 
that he offered to lodge in it with the keeper, through the autumnal 
gales. He was true to his word. But the first tremendous tempest 
which caught the flimsy light-house in the hollow of its hand, hurled 
both building and builder into the foaming sea. We fear that too 
many souls are rearing their hopes for eternity upon the sands of 



166 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VII : 28, 29 



28. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were 
astonished at his doctrine : 

29. For he taught them as otie having authority, and not as the scribes. 

error ; when the testing floods come, and the winds beat upon their 
house, it will fall, and sad will be the fall thereof." — T, L. Cuyler, D.D. 



Sinking of a Town. — " Several squares in a town in the Penn- 
sylvania coal regions, with all upon them, have sunk into the ground. 
Built over out-worked coal mines, the upper surface was supported 
by pillars and stays in the mine, and these at length gave way. 

" It is always dangerous to build on a hollow foundation — not only 
dangerous thus to build houses, but just as perilous to build lives 
and characters." — The Moravia?!. 



Floods in the East. — " In dry weather the wadies, or ravines," 
are either quite dry or only supplied with a trickling streamlet. But 
when the heavy rains come, not only does a deep river tear down 
the wady, but, as the Arabs of Sinai say, ' It is not a river, it is the 
sea.' Nothing can stand against these floods. Trees are uprooted, 
huge rocks are carried along, and the luckless party of travelers are 
swept utterly away. The sands are often made quicksands by the 
force of the water ; and that which is a passable road in the dry 
season, would swallow up a horseman in the wet season." 

— Sunday-School Times, 



VIII : 1-4 



MATTHEW 



167 



CHAPTER VIII. 



1. When he was come down from the mountain, great 
multitudes followed him. 

2. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, 
saying. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 

3. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, 
I will : be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was 
cleansed. 

4. And Jesus saith unto him. See thou tell no man ; but 
go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that 
Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them. 



A.D. 28. 

Spring and 

Summer. 

GALILEE 

NEAR 

CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND YEAR 
OF PUBLIC 
MINISTRY. 
THE 
GREAT GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 
A LEPER 

clea:nsed. 



2. A Leper. — Distinguish between the leprosy of the Pentateuch, 
the white leprosy, which was many centuries before Christ, and the 
modern leprosy, the elephantiasis, so named because it 
gives the skin the rough appearance of an elephant's ^^^g-^ui*^^ 
skin. Diseases change more or less in course of centu- 
ries. Here is a good illustration of how frequently different things 
go under the same name, and great controversies arise over them on 
this account. 



Leprosy as a Type of Sin.—" Sin is a deadly leprosy which 
has involved our whole race in one common ruin." 

(i) Sin, like leprosy, is the most loathsome, polluting, deforming, 
unclean thing in the universe. "Leprosy is God's language, by 
which he describes sin as it appears in his sight." 

(2) Sin, like leprosy, separates from the pure and clean. The sin- 
ner is utterly unfit for heaven and the society of pure and holy be- 
ings. 

(3) Sin, like leprosy, is in a sense infectious by intimate contact, 
as when the sin of others is received into the soul, by yielding to 
temptation or following bad examples. Leprosy is not contagious 
like scarlet fever or smallpox, but it can " be communicated by the 
inoculation of the blood with the morbid secretions of an affected 
person." — Dr. G. H. Fox, in Medical Record, 1884. It flourishes 
especially in those who live in outward filth and moral uncleanness. 
Says Rev. Mr. Bishop, "Our experience here shows that there is lit- 
tle or no danger of infection trom leprosy to persons of cleanly hab- 



168 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : I-4 

its." So there is little danger to those in a sinful world who are pure 
in heart and are laboring, as Christ did, for the salvation of men from 
sin. 

(4) Sin, like leprosy, is constitutional. The outward expressions 
and manifestations are but the effects of a disease which permeates 
the whole system. 

(5) The tendency to sin, like the tendency to leprosy, is he- 
reditary. 

(6) Sin, like leprosy, is deceitful in its working. " Some, as they 
look on infancy, reject with horror the thought that sin exists 
within. But so might any one say who looked upon the beautiful 
babe in the arms of a leprous mother. But time brings forth the 
fearful malady. New-born babes of leprous parents are often as 
pretty and as healthy in appearance as any, but by and by its pres- 
ence and workings become visible in some of the signs described in 
the thirteenth chapter of Leviticus." — La7id and Book. 

(7) It is widely extended, existing in China, India, Eastern Africa, 
Norway, Sweden, Mexico, and the Sandwich Islands, with a few 
cases in England and the United States. 

(8) It is practically incurable by human skill, although under 
favorable circumstances there have been several cures, even in 
advanced stages, says Dr. Fox in his report to the New York Health 
Department (1896). And it is announced, says the Biblical World 
('1896), "that two eminent physicians, Kitasato of Japan and Dr. 
Bouffe of Paris, claim that they have discovered independently the 
bacillus that causes leprosy and a toxin that will destroy it." 

(9) In many cases leprosy, like sin, does not bring immediate pain 
and death. Rev. Mr. Bishop says, " It is not virulent, acute, or even 
painful, except in its later stages, when the vital organs are obstructed 
in their action. It is an ancBsthetic malady." 



The Treatment of the Sinner for a Cure.— "The popular 
impression about leprosy and its contagious features is very errone- 
ous. Leprosy is no more dangerous than consumption. Persons 
in a street car are very much more likely to contract tuberculosis 
from the expectoration of a consumptive than to get lep- 
HoTf rosy from the presence of a leper. Leprosy is, of course, 
■was Cured, contagious, and probably it can be contracted in acci- 
dental Vw^ays, as omer diseases of the blood are ; but the 
terror of a leper is something that is not founded in fact. Ten years 



VIII : 5-7 MATTHEW 169 



5. If And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there 
came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 

6. And saying. Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of 
the palsy, grievously tormented. 

7. And Jesus saith unto him, I wiU come and heal him. 



A.D. 28. 

Spriftg and 

SiiitDuer. 

CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND YEAR 

OF PUBLIC 

MJNISTKY. 

THE 

GREAT GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

THE 

CENTURION'S 
SERVANT. 



ago a man in a very advanced stage of leprosy 
was treated here at one of the hospitals, and he 
recovered, proving that leprosy can be cured. 

There are other cases just as conclusive; but 4 *J* 

that man was carefully treated in the hospital, 
and he received all the comforts of life, whereas, if he had been 
locked up in a lazaretto and his food handed to him through a hole, 
probably he would have died. The great difficulty in curing leprosy 
is that as soon as a person learns that he has it he is made to be- 
lieve that all hope is gone. He is treated as a doomed man and 
made to believe that he is an object to be shunned by everybody. 
Naturally enough it is difficult for a person to recover under such 
circumstances." — Dr. George H. Fox, 1896, Report to Health Depart- 
me7it of New York City. 

Library. — The vivid description of the healing of the leper in 
"Ben Hur." G. W. Cable's " Old Creole Days," "Jean Poquelin " 
has a graphic account of leprosy and its effects. Willis' poems, 
" The Leper." 



Helplessness of Self-salvation. — How helpless man is to 
save himself from the disease of sin may be illustrated by ^schy- 
lus' " Prometheus Bound "; by Virgil's Laocoon with his sons in 
the coils of the great serpent (Book H.) of which statues may be 
seen in most art galleries. 



5. Palsy, paralysis, including not only what we term paralysis, 
but catalepsy, cramps, lockjaw. In my earlier years I knew a young 
man, and often watched with him, who was afflicted by a disease 
something similar to that of the centurion's servant. 
It was a kind of tetanus, or nervous cramps. The x t^n^ * 
spasms would attack him and throw his limbs out of 
joint, and sometimes even his neck, so far that it required the 
strength of two persons, after the attack was over, to bring his head 



170 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 8, 9 

8. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest 
come under my roof : but speak the v/ord only, and my servant shall be healed. 

9. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me : and I say to this 
man, Go, and he goeth ; and to another, Come, and he cometh ; and to my servant, 
Do this, and he doeth ii. 

into place again. He said that when the spasm was upon him, even 
to touch him was Hke striking him with a hammer 



Tormented, Bacrav^d/zevof, the underlying Greek word means a 
touchstone, by which gold and silver are tested, hence trials by fire 
and torture. Any one who has seen at Nuremburg and other 
ancient cities the horrible instruments of torture by v/hich men were 
tried in ancient times, gains some idea of the torjtients here described. 
The same word, in Matthew xiv. 24, is translated tossed vi\\)!\ the waves. 
The torments were like the tossing of the sea in a storm. 



There Came unto Him.— In a little book, "Saint Indefatiga- 
ble," is related the following incident : " When we had diphtheria 
here (the Shelter for Destitute Children), there were twenty cases 
among the children, and no one would watch. Our 

Faith and president, Miss Tackson, and Mrs. Sarle both knew our 
Foot-power. ^ ,,11,. 1 1 , 

need, and both believed we would get assistance. Miss 

Jackson went home to pray over it. Mrs. Sarle commended the 

praying, and added, 'A little foot-powe}' will be needed to go with it ; 

so while Miss Jackson prays, I will furnish the foot-power.' Thus, 

through the prayer of faith and the feet of faith, the necessary nurses 

were secured."-—//^ L. Hastings, in The Christian. 



8. The Centurion Answered and Said.— The centurion built 
his faith on his own experience, and on what he had known of the 
works of Jesus. 

Foundation of Faith. — Jesus has proved himself able and willing 
to help, by having already bestowed upon others the very blessings 
we need. He is a tried and proved Saviour. He has sustained others 
in trials and needs like ours ; therefore he will sustain us. He has 
forgiven others' sins ; therefore he will forgive ours. He has heard 
others' prayers ; therefore he will hear ours. He has healed others ; 
he will heal us. His words calmed the sea that raged and stormed 



VIII: 10-13 MATTHEW 171 



10. When Jesus heard it^ he marvelled, and said to them 
that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great 
faith, no, not in Israel. 

11. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the 
east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, 
and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 

12. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into 
outer darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

13. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way ; and 
as thou hast beUeved, so be it done unto thee. And his ser- 
vant was healed in the selfsame hour. 



A.D. 28. 

Spring- and 

Suininer. 

CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND YEAR 

OF PUBLIC 

MINISTRY. 

THE 

GREAT GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

ACCORDING 

TO YOUR 

FAITH. 



like the one that is tossing us ; therefore when we see him walking 
on the waters, we know that the winds and the waves will again 
obey his " Peace, be still." The history of God's people is full of 
monuments of his promises. 

Ant^US. — In the Grecian story the giant Antaeus, in wrestling 
with Hercules, doubled his strength every time he touched the 
earth. And our faith renews its strength every time it touches the 
solid ground of fact. 

10. So Great Faith. — The centurion's faith that built a syna- 
gogue, now grows into new power and richer blessings. Sickness 
and trouble are often one means of increasing faith. 
Like Jacob, from this pillow of stones in the night of ^^^^^ <)f 

1 • • r 1 J r Faith. 

sorrow, many have seen visions of heaven and of our 

Father, and have received the messages God's angels have brought. 

Countless stars, invisible by day, shine upon us in the night. 

** The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed, 
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made." 



Library. — Blanco White's sonnet, " Mysterious Night." 

13. As THOU hast Believed so be it Done unto Thee. — The 
poor widow, whose story is told in 2 Kings iv. 1-7, was told to go to 
her neighbors and borrow jars and vessels, and pour 
from her oil jar into them. The oil was miraculously ^ccoJ'dmg 
increased till every vessel was full, Then and then only paith. 
it ceased to flow. If she had had faith to borrow more 
vessels, she would have had more oil ; if less faith, less oil. Her faith 
was the measure according to which she received. 



172 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : I4-16 



14. T[ And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, 
and sick of a fever. 

15. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her : and she arose, and ministered 
unto them. 

16. ^ When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed 
with devils : and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick : 

14. Peter's Wife's Mother. — The sick woman was an emblem 

of sinful man — weak, in pain, hastening toward death, 
A Parable , , , . , . | , ^ . 

in Action, unable to save himself. Jesus gives renewing grace, he 

comes at the invitation of others, he restores the soul to 

health and life ; and whosoever is cured by him immediately sets to 

work to minister to others. 



15. Reference. " Touched her hand." See on ix. 20, " The heal- 
ing touch." 

16. Healed all that were Sick. — " Imagine, if you can, the 
condition of a country in which there are no doctors, where the 
healing art is only practiced by a few quacks, who rely more on 

charms than on physic for their cures. Such is now, and 
„ ^,? °f such was Palestine in our Lord's day. 

Healing in ■' 

the East. " There, until the medical missionaries were sent by 
several English societies, there was not a physician in 
the land, and even now there are very few. In such a country as 
this, with sick and crippled in every village, picture the eager excite- 
ment when the news spread that there is a good physician arrived 
in town ; that he has healed a fierce demoniac by a word, and a 
great fever by a touch."—//. B. Trzstra?n, LL.D. 



" My earliest walk in the Arab quarter of Alexandria, and on the 
streets about it, showed me, in one hour, more blind beggars, more 
children with sore or sightless eyes, more hopeless cripples, and half- 
naked creatures full of sores, than I had seen in all my life before.' 
' At Cairo the blind, or the sick, or the crippled, sat at every street 
corner, and on every square ; were laid at every mosque door, and 
were crying out for help or for an alms before every bazaar.' ' Pales- 
tine now, as doubtless was the case in the days of our Lord, seems 
fairly overrun with those afflicted by one form or another of bodily 
ailment.' They thronged the entrance ways to Jerusalem, and the 



VIII :I7 MATTHEW 1Y3 



17. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias 
the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare 
our sicknesses. 

paths to Gethsemane and the Mount of Olives. 
And for these there is little help. There are no 
hospitals or poorhouses. The native doctors 
have little scientific knowledge of the healing 
art, so that the Talmud says, • The best of physi- 
cians deserves hell.' " — H. C. Trumbull. 



A.D. 28. 

Spring and 

Sur»}ner. 

CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR 

OF PUBLIC 

MINISTRY. 

THE 

GREAT GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

HEALING THE 
SICK. 



Library. — Trumbull's "Studies in Oriental Social Life," "Calls 
for Healing in the East." 

" A Colony of Mercy " describes what Christianity is doing for all 
forms of disease in a town in Germany. Pointing to the sick, one 
said, " These are our treasures." 

Whittier's poems, " Our Master." 

Reference. See on iv. 23-25, and xiv. 30. 



Pictures. — The Vale of Tears, Dore ; Christus Consolator, Plock- 
horst, Ary Scheffer ; Healing the Sick, Schonherr, B. West, Zim- 
mermann, Hoffmann. 

Where to Find the Doctor. — " ' Is your father at home ? ' a 
gentleman asked a child, on the village doctor's doorstep. 

" ' No, sir,' the boy answered, ' he's away.' 

" ' Where do you think I could find him } ' 

" 'Well, you've got to look for him some place where people are 
sick, or hurt, or som.ething like that. I do not know where he is, 
but he's helping somewhere.' 

" If one had been seeking for Christ in Galilee he would have 
found Him where people were sick or distressed in some way. He 
was always helping somewhere." — Anon. 

17. Bare our Sicknesses.— e/3a(7ra(7fv, he bare, as a burden laid 
upon him. The word means to take up with the hands in order to 
carry ; also to bear away, to carry off. He took the burden on his 
heart, and bore it away. 



174 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 1/ 

How God Helps. — Prof. Alfred A. Wright calls attention to the 
derivation of the Greek word for "help" in Luke x. 40, where 
Martha wants Jesus to make Mary " help " her. It is avvavrild^TiTaL, — 
avv^ together with; dvri, over against, 07i the other side ; ?ia(3T]Tat^ take hold 
of^ lift. The " help " was to take hold of the burden on the opposite 
side, and lift together with. The same word is used in Romans 
viii. 26, where the spirit " helpeth " our infirmities. So Jesus bears 
our griefs and pains. He takes hold of them on the opposite end 
and bears them with us till He bears them away, by removing them, 
or by transforming them into faith, courage, patience, sympathy. 



Library. — Hawthorne's " Mosses from an Old Manse," " Earth's 
Holocaust " of all burdens, cares, sickness, and pain. 



Venus de Milo. — " Dr. Maclaren compares human love to the 
Venus of Milo, which, though a statue of most magnificent qualities 
as a work of art, has no arms. It may smile in pity, but has no arms 
to aid ; it may look on in sympathy, bat has no power to help. 

" Many a time human love stands helpless, armless, impotent to 
aid ; but in Jesus Christ we have One who is not only matchless in 
beauty and grace, but is mighty to save."— Rev. F. D. Kelsey, 

Massing the Miracles. — The miracles of chapters viii. and ix. 
seem to be massed together as a cumulative proof of Jesus' author- 
ity to utter the Sermon on the Mount They are God's seal and 
signature. 

What is a Miracle. — A miracle is the personal intervention of 
God by his will into the chain of cause and effect in nature. It is 
not "breaking of the laws of nature," nor "the suspension of the laws 
of nature," nor any change in the laws of nature, but simply God's 
doing with his infinite power the same quality of action though 
vastly greater in degree, that we do every hour when we 

iW ^*le ^^^^ ^"^ personal will amid the forces of nature. I 
lift up a book. The act is a new personal force, which 
marks the power of my will. It breaks no law of nature, suspends 
none. It is the same when God, by his infinite power, lifts up a 
mountain or raises the dead. It is his personal will touching nature 
and showing that God himself is there. Just as a friend can grant 



VIII: 17 MATTHEW 175 
a favor, or the owner of a factory stop a part of *i* "i* 



the machinery to rescue a child caught in the 
wheels. 



A.D. 28. 

Spring and 
Sunitner. 

CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND YEAR 

OF PUBLIC 

MINISTRY. 

THE 

GREAT GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 



MIRACLES. 



Miracles Natural to Christ.— If there is 
a personal God, it is as natural that He should 
work a miracle, for sufficient reasons, as it is that 
the owner of a factory should interfere to save a 
child who is caught in the machinery. To accept 
a miracle when proved is scientific. Even such 
scientists as Professor Huxley {Popular Sciejtce 
Monthly) agree to this. It is simply a question of proof. If Jesus 
was the Son of God, the power to work miracles was a natural ac- 
companiment. He bears the same relation to the powers of nature 
as a watchmaker does to the watch when he sets the hands to the 
right time. 

Place of Miracles. — " ' Suppose,' says Matthew Arnold, ' I could 

change the pen with which I write this into a pen-wiper, I should not 

thus make what I write the truer or more convincing.' Mr. Arnold 

suggests certain interpretations of the Bible. ' The Bible is on my 

book-shelves, and I take it down and judge for myself whether his 

interpretation is correct or not. His turning a pen into a pen-wiper 

would not and ought not to affect my judgment of the correctness of his 

interpretation. But George Kennan is publishing in the 

Century Magazine some articles descriptive of exile life in Matthew 

Siberia ; and before I will read these articles, certainly , ^"** ^. 

' -' Argument. 

before I will allow myself to be influenced in judgment 
or conduct by them, I must know that Mr, Kennan has been in Sibe- 
ria, tells what he has seen and heard, and is not spinning a yarn, De- 
foe-like, out of his own fertile imagination. The philosopher needs 
no authentication ; his philosophy is its own evidence. But a wit- 
ness to facts otherwise not known, and perhaps not otherwise dis- 
coverable, always requires some authentication. The distinction is 
perfectly simple ; and we act upon it in every- day life. Now Christ 
came as a witness to heavenly facts about God and the immortality 
and destiny of the soul, and miracles are the authentication of His 
credibility. They are God's signature to His testimony,' " 

— Condensed from the Christian Union. 

Library.— In W. C. Prime's " Along New England Roads " (Har- 
pers', 1892), "A Village Discussion," there is a capital illustration of 



176 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : l8-22 



i8. T[ Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to 
depart unto the other side. 

19. And a certain scribe came, and said unto him. Master, I will follow thee whither- 
soever thou goest. 

20. And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have 
nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. 

21. And another of his disciples said unto him. Lord, suffer me first to go and bury 
my father. 

22. But Jesus said unto him, Follow me ; and let the dead bury their dead. 

the nature and possibilities of miracles. Also quoted in note to 
Van Dyke's " Gospel for an Age of Doubt," pp. 420-424. 



Modern Proofs. — Jesus Christ is living now, and working as 
really as when on earth, and in the same directions. He promised 
his disciples that they should do greater things than He did in Pales- 
tine. And this promise has proved true (i) in the number and 
greatness of the conversions of individuals, (2) In the great moral 
changes of whole nations. (3) In the physical blessings which He is 
working through His disciples. Public and private institutions 
spring up everywhere under the influence of Christianity, as herbs 
and flowers under the genial influences of spring-time. They do not 
work miracles, but are better than the power of miracles, as the pro- 
longed sunshine is better than a flash of lightning. 

18-22. I WILL Follow Thee.— Dr. Wm. Taylor tells a story dt 

some sailors going ashore from their ship, and returning intoxicated ; 

jj . they entered their little boat to row to the ship, but they 

with the rowed till morning without reaching it. Daylight showed 

Anchor that they had not loosened the rope that held them to 

^""* the wharf. Many a man would follow Christ, but he is 

fastened by some one sin, some bad habit, some fear or neglect ; 

but one sin alone, unforsaken, will keep him forever from Christ. 

Surface or Depths. — Some people's feelings are touched only 
as the sea by the winds that ruffle its surface, or as the sunset colors 
are reflected from its waves, only to pass away when the sun goes 
down. The deep currents and tides are all unchanged. 



Weeding out Friends. — " A shrewd, but somewhat eccentric 
mkn says that he once ' weeded out his friends,' by hanging a scarlet 



VIII : 23-25 MATTHEW 177 



23. H And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples 
followed him. 

24. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, 
insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves : but he 
was asleep. 

25. And his disciples came to him^ and awoke him, saying. 
Lord, save us : we perish. 



A.D 28, 

Autumn. 

THE SEA 

OF GALILEE. 

SECOND TEAR 

OF PUBLIC 

MINISTRY. 

THE 

GREAT GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

STILLING THE 
TEMPEST. 



flag, with a notice of a selling out by auction, 
from his front door. After this signal of ap- 
parent bankruptcy, he tells us that the number 
of his visitors fell off amazingly, and he had no need of any extra 
leaves of his dinner-table for some time afterward. His fair-weather 
friends all deserted him ; and by this shrewd device he found out 
who were the genuine article. — T. L. Cuyler, D.D. 



No Going Back. — " On a dial of a clock in the palace of Napo- 
leon at Malmaison, the maker has put the words, ' Nescit reverti' — 
it does not know how to go backward." 



24. There Arose a Great Tempest,—" Those churches where 
the Word of God is not awake, are in danger of shipwreck ; not that 
Christ sleeps, but he is slumbering in us, by reason of our sleep. But 
where faith watches, there is no fear of wreck from the powers of 
this world." — Hilary. 

Reference. See on xiv. 22, " The Weather- Vane." 



LIFE COMPARED TO THE SEA. 

*' 'Tis not in man 
To look unmoved upon that heaving waste which, from horizon to 

horizon spread. 
Meets the o'erarching heavens on every side, blending their hues in 

distant faintness there. 
'Tis wonderful ! And yet, my boy, just such is life. Life is a sea as 

fathomless, 
As wide, as terrible, and yet sometimes as calm and beautiful. The 

light of heaven 
Smiles on it, and 'tis decked with every hue of glory and of joy. 

Anon dark clouds 



178 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 23-25 

Arise, contending winds of fate go forth, and Hope sits weeping 

o'er a general wreck. 
And thou must sail upon this sea a long, eventful voyage. The wise 

may suffer wreck. 
The foolish 7nust. Oh, then, be early wise ! Learn from the mariner 

his skillful art — 
To ride upon the waves and catch the breeze and dare the threaten- 
ing storm and trace a path, 
'Mid countless dangers, to the destined port, unerringly secure. Oh, 

learn from him 
To station quick-eyed Prudence at the helm, to guard thy sail from 

Passion's sudden blasts. 
And make Religion thy magnetic guide, which, though it trembles 

as it lowly lies, 
Points to the light that changes not, — in heaven." — A7i07i. 



Historic. — King Canute, at Southampton, taught his courtiers 
that he had no power over the sea, 

Xerxes threw chains into the Hellespont to fetter the waves, " but 
he lost his army." 

" Of Antiochus Ephiphanes, and his pride that had a fall, it is 
written in the book of Maccabees : ' And thus he that a little afore 
thought he might command the waves of the sea (so proud was he 
beyond the condition of man) and weigh the high mountains in a 
balance, was now cast on the ground.' " 

" Carlyle," says Jacox, " made a picturesque application of the royal 
Dane's injunction to the waves, in his survey of the advancing tide 
of the French Revolution — grim host marching on, the black- browed 
Marseillese in the van, with hum and murmur, far-heard, like the 
ocean tide, drawn up as if by Luna and influences from the great 
deep of waters, they roll gleaming on ; no king, Canute or Louis, can 
bid them roll back." 

C^SAREM Vehis. — When Caesar was crossing a rough stream, 
and the rowers were becoming frightened, he encouraged them by 
saying, " You are carrying Caesar : you need fear nothing." So what- 
ever soul carries Christ need not fear the worst storm of trouble or 
temptation which ever assailed man. 



The Voyage of Life.— In each of the series of pictures, " The 
Voyage of Life," by Cole, there is a guardian angel ; but in the picture 



VIII: 26 



MATTHEW 



179 



26. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of 
little faith ? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the 
sea ; and there was a great calm. 

of " Manhood " this guardian is unseen by the 
man on the rough tide. Christ is with us, al- 
though we do not always see Him. He seems 
asleep or hidden, but the angels can see that He 
is ever with us to guide and guard. 



26. Oh, Ye of Little Faith. 



-* 



A.l>. 28. 

Autumn. 

THE SEA 

OF GALILEE. 

SECOND TEAR 

OP PUBLIC 

MINISTRY. 

THE 

GREAT GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

STILLING THE 
TEMPEST. 



LOSSES. 

" Upon the white sea sand 

There sat a pilgrim band. 
Telling the losses which their lives had known 

While evening waned away 

From breezy cliff and bay, 
And the strong tides went out with weary moan. 

" One spake with quivering lip. 

Of a fair freighted ship, 
With all his household to the deep gone down. 

But one had wilder woe, 

For a fair face long ago. 
Lost in the darker depths of a great town. 

" There were some who mourned their youth 
With a most loving truth, 

For its brave hopes and memories ever green. 
And one upon the West, 
Turned an eye that would not rest. 

For far-off hills whereon its joy had been. 

" Some talked of vanished gold. 

Some of proud honors told, 
Some spake of friends that were their trust no more ; 

And one of a green grave. 

Beside a foreign wave. 
That made him sit so lonely on the shore. 



180 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 2/ 

27. But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the 
winds and the sea obey him ! 

" But when their tales were done, 
There spake among them one, 
A stranger, seeming from all sorrow free. 
' Sad losses have ye met, 
But mine is heavier yet, 
For a believing heart hath gone from me. 

" ' Alas ! ' these pilgrims said, 
' For the living and the dead, 
For fortune's cruelty, for love's sure cross, 
For the wreck of land and sea ; 
But however it came to thee, 
Thine, stranger, is life's last and heaviest loss.' " 

— Frances Brown. 

Rebuked the Winds, by saying, according to Mark (iv. 39), 
" Peace,-be still ;" Tredlfiioao, be muzzled like an ox ; be silent, the same 
word that Christ uses to the demon in Mark i. 25. 



There was a Great Calm. — Mark adds the wind ceased, 
Hmaatv grew weary, tired, " a beautiful and picturesque word. The 
sea sank to rest as if exhausted by its own beating." — Vincent. 



Cuthbert's Way Out. — In the early dawn of Britain Cuthbert 
left his sheep and went to preaching Christ. One day, with three 
companions on the sea, he was tossed by a storm upon a dreary 
shore, and his comrades cried to him : 

" Cuthbert, let us perish, — hope is o'er. 
The furious tempest shuts the water path ; 
The snow-storm binds us on the bitter land." 

"Now, wherefore, friends, have ye so little faith?" God's servant 
said, and, stretching forth his hand toward heaven, 

He lifted up his reverent eyes and spake, — 
" I thank thee, Lord, the way is open there. 

No storm above our heads in wrath shall break 
And shut the heavenward path of love and prayer." 



VIII: 27 MATTHEW 181 



A.D. 28. 

Autumn. 

THE SEA 

OF GALILEE. 

SECOND TEAR 

OF PUBLIC 

MINISTRY. 

THE 

GREAT GALILEAN 

MINISTRY. 

PEACE, BE 

STILL. 



The heavenward path of love and prayer is 
never shut to faith by earthly storms. It is 
opened by them. From the pillow of stones we 
see the gates ajar. In the darkness of earth are 
shown to us the infinite worlds above, our dreams 
become steps to heaven, and our hills of difficulty 
mountains of transfiguration. 

" Ridge of the mountain wave, lower thy crest ! 
Wail of Euroclydon, be thou at rest ! 
Sorrow can never be, darkness must fly. 
Where saith the Light of light. Peace ! it is I ! " 

Picture of Shipwreck. — We are apt to see too exclusively the 
dark side of the picture of these times. " An artist, when on his 
death-bed, called for his masterpiece. It was the painting of a ship- 
wreck, with dark clouds and raging seas, the only light a lurid one. 
' That cloud is too dark,' he said, * I always thought it the right 
shade before, but now I see it is too dark ; I must make it brighter,' 
and with a last touch of his brush he let a gleam of light illumine 
the darkness." — Tools for Teachers. 



A tossing bark ; 

A heaving sea ; 
The waters dark. 

Her grave may be. 
The wild clouds break ; 

The sun shines through ; 
A rainbow spans 

The waters blue. 

A troubled soul 

On life's rough sea ; ' 
The dark waves roll ; 

No hope may be. 
God sheds his light 

Upon our tears ; 
And lo, most bright ! 

A bow appears. — Rev. W. B. C. Merry. 

Library. — Mrs. Stowe's hymn, " When Winds are Raging o'er the 
Upper Ocean." Tennyson's " Crossing the Bar." 



182 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 2/ 

PEACE BE STILL. 

"When Christ across the tempest of our will 
Walketh in grandeur, saying, ' Peace ! be still ! ' 
Then shall the surging cares within us cease, 

And we find peace ; — 
Yet not a peace self-satisfied, secure, 
But earnest, watchful, patient to endure ; — 
Not the ' I thank thee ' of the Pharisee, 
But that of * God be merciful to me ! ' " 



Oil Calming the Troubled Waters. — "It is interesting to 
notice in this connection, not as an explanation, but as an applica- 
tion of the miracle of Jesus, the effect of oil in calming the sea 
around a vessel in a storm. There are means which God gives us 
to use in calming the storms of life. Many things he does for us by 
the powers which his gospel has brought to our knowledge and use, 
both for ourselves and others, just as modern medical science devel- 
oped through the gospel and used by faith is even better than mira- 
cles for daily life. 

"To the Hydrographic Office of the United States is mainly due 
the credit of bringing into prominence and forcing on the notice of 
seamen in various publications the great importance of this prop- 
erty of oil under circumstances when life and property 

the^Sea ^^^ endangered by breaking seas and the extreme facil- 
ity and trifling expense of its employment. Thanks to 
their efforts the fact is now well known to all English-speaking 
mariners, and many are the instances of the successful use of oil. 

" The facts are briefly these : In the heaviest gales at sea, when 
breaking seas are a sourceof danger to small or heavily laden vessels, 
or an inconvenience and discomfort to larger or more seaworthy ones, 
a very small quantity of oil, skilfully applied to suit the circumstances, 
spreads upon the surface of the water with marvelous rapidity and 
forms a perfect breakwater, the raging waves being instantaneously 
transformed into a harmless swell, which quietly lifts the ship with- 
out any of the violent shocks and blows caused by the impact of an 
almost wall-like mass of water about to break. Spray alone comes 
on board in place of the sheets of water and green seas which often 
do so much damage. Admiral Cloue calculates, from a number 
of instances where the quantity of oil used and the speed of the 
vessel are given, that the film of oil which causes this marvelous and 



VIII : 27 MATTHEW 183 



beneficent eSect can be but little more than one *i* — 
tfaiee4inndred-tbonsandth ci an inck. in thick- 



- Experience aikcadj goes to show that a small 
qnantitj erf oil is more efficactoos than a free 
api^ication of it, the film apparently spreading 
more qnickfy. Less than half a gallon an hour 
seems to secnxe the largest ship from being 
boarded bjrthe waves." — 7^ CkMrckman. 



A.D. 28. 

Au-tumn.. \ 

THE SEA I 

OF GALILEE. ! 



SECOND TEJJR 
OF PtTBXXC 



,T. 

PEACE, BE 
STILL. 



"The captain of the steamship /*<7^r«^j^ recently in a cyclone 
^iplied oil to the angry waves with perfect snccess. He slung a 
leaking oil-tank over the side of the ship and the oil kept the waves 
from breaking wichin the circle on which the oil spread. The great 
waves came on just as fiercely as usual, but the oil tended to make 
them pass nnder and beyond the vessel, instead of hammering the 
sides and deck." — Ckristian Advocate, Sept., 1SS5. 

The captain, taking an oil-cruse that would hold perhaps a gill, 
stood at the stem and poored a tiny stream of the liquid over the 
gunwale into the boiling waters below. The effect was instantan- 
eous and magical. A great, wide, smooth track was created in the 
wake of the ship, where huge billows had been a moment before. 
" Occasionally," continued the captain, ** when we have been in the 
midst of very heavy seas, I have helped matters very much by tying 
a bag on each side of the ship and letting the oil drop from them 
drop by drop. You know many of our English harbors are con- 
stxncted with pipes across the entrance filled with oil which may be 
tapped in bad weather when a ship is trying to gain refuge." 



Types and E^^iBLEiis, — Sin always raises a storm, as it did in 
Jonah's case. All the diseases, oppressions, cruelties, gnawings of 
ccMiscaence, lives without hope, and hearts without rest, 
are a part of the tempest raised by sin. But the greatest ^j. ^^^^^ 
fury of the storm is in the future. There is no true 
human escape from this storm. No earthly voice can bid the winds 
and waves to cease. But Christ, by his forgiving love, says, " Peace, 
be still," for all that call on him, and arches over all the bow of 
peace. 



184 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 2/ 

(i) " The boat is the Church of Christ, and it sails across the ocean 
of the world's history to the * other side ' of the life beyond the 
gra V e . ' ' — EUicott. 

" Ours is a ship on a voyage, not a ship in a harbor; 
^^in^thT^ a ship in progress."— J/^^rt'^/z^/^. 
Storm. (2) The disciples are in this boat toiling and laboring 

anxiously to take the boat to the place where the Lord 
commanded. 

(3) Their Lord Jesus Christ is in the boat with them. There is 
no church in which Jesus does not dwell. 

(4) The tempest represents the storms of persecution, of opposi- 
sition, of worldliness, of false doctrine, and every opposing force 
which the great enemy of good can excite against the people of God. 

(5) Jesus sometimes seems asleep in the storm. He lets the storm 
rage and does not at once interfere. The delay seems long, and the 
faint-hearted, looking at the waves rather than at Jesus, sometimes 
lose courage. But the object of the delay is to increase our faith. 

(6) Our hope lies not in the absence of danger, but in the presence 
of Christ, who is able to control the storm. No church with Christ 
in it can be wrecked or lost. More of the living Christ, more of his 
love, more of his teaching, more faith in him, more prayer to him, 
more of his Holy Spirit, more of his holy life — these are the salva- 
tion and hope of the Church. 



Wreck of the Spree.— Mr. Moody and Gen. O. O. Howard, 
with many others, were passengers on the steamer Spree in the 
autumn of 1892, when the great shaft broke and the whole company 
were in momentary danger of sinking. There was a great prayer- 
meeting on board, led by Mr. Moody, and while they were praying 
help came. General Howard thus speaks of the relation of prayer to 
their rescue : 

" Did the people of the Spree receive help miraculously from the 
Heavenly Father? In these things — that is, in extreme dangers — it 
has been my good fortune to have had abundant experience. But I 
cannot tell where the natural and ordinary helps of Providence end 
or where the supernatural begins. The finite will never be allowed 
to know this dividing line. I only know this, at this time, on this 
ship, as at other times in my life, the demonstration is as clear as 
daylight that the Lord is a hearer and is an answerer of the prayers 
of his children. He evidently loves to arrange his blessings as he 



VIII : 28-32 MATTHEW 185 



A.D. 28. 

A zctumn. 
GADAEA. 

SECOND TEAR 

OP PUBLIC 

MINISTRY. 

THE 

GREAT GALILEAN 

MINISTRY, 

THE 

DEMONIAC 
CURED. 



28. And when he was come to the other side into the 
country of the Gerg-esenes, there met him two possessed 
with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so 
that no man might pass by that way. 

29. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we 
to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God ? art thou come 
hither to torment us before the time ? 

30. And there was a good way off from them a herd of 
many swine feeding. 

31. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, 
suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. 

32. And he said unto them, Go. And when they were 

come out, they went into the herd of swine : and, behold, the whole herd of swine 
ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. 

does our daily bread, so as to make them come as much as possible 
through common-sense ways and human instrumentality. There 
was one blessing on the wrecked steamer that was beyond human 
procuring: it was the almost universal lifting up of human souls into 
the very sunlight of God's presence." — Gen. O. O. Howard. 



Library. — Longfellow's "Building of the Ship," "Thou, too, 
sail on, oh Ship of State." 

28. Two Possessed with Devils. 

Modern Examples. — Dr. Nevius, for forty years a missionary in 
China, has given his observations in a book lately published, " De- 
mon Possession and Allied Themes " (Revell Co.). He sent a series 
of inquiries to Protestant missionaries and Chinese Christians, with 
the result that he found the almost exact counterpart of the gospel 
accounts, recorded by them, as well as observed by himself. 

(i) The victim " during the paroxysms sometimes falls to the 
ground senseless, or foams at the mouth, presenting symptoms sim- 
ilar to those of epilepsy or hysteriao" 

(2) " The duration of the abnormal state varies from a few minutes 
to several days." 

(3) " When normal consciousness is restored after one of these 
attacks, the subject is entirely ignorant of everything which took 
place during that state." 

(4) " The most striking characteristic of these cases is that the 



186 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS VIII : 33 

33. And they that kept them fled, and went their ways into the city, and told every 
thing, and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. 

subject evidences another personality, and the normal personality 
for the time being is partially or wholly dormant." 

(5) " The new personality presents traits of character utterly dif- 
ferent from those which really belong to the subject in his normal 
state, and this change of character is with rare exceptions in the di- 
rection of moral obliquity and impurity." 

(6) " Many persons while demon-possessed give evidence of knowl- 
edge which cannot be accounted for in ordinary ways. They often 
appear to know the Lord Jesus Christ as a divine person, and show 
an aversion to and fear of him." 

(7) " Many cases have been cured by prayer to Christ or in his 
name." " So far as we have been able discover, this method of cure 
has not failed in any case." — Demon Posscssioji, pp. 143-145. 

The Scientific Society for Psychical Research is gradually gather- 
ing facts which will throw fresh light on this subject. 



33. What was Befallen the Possessed of Devils. They 
were clothed and in their right mind (Mark v. 15). This was a par- 
able of the change Jesus works in the souls of men. 

Reference. See at xii. 1-8, Plato's comparison of the soul to 
Glaucus. 

The Transformed Boy. — Mr. Edward Carswell, in a lecture, 
spoke of a magician who offered to change any bright boy into an 
idiot. A mother consented to have him try his power on her son. 
The boy went forward ; the magician made his passes ; soon the 
bright look fades away from the boy's face, a vacant stare takes its 
place, and the boy becomes an idiotic fool. At length the mother 
asks the magician to change him back again. But to her astonish- 
ment, this he could not do. He could turn bright boys into idiots, 
but had no power to change idiots into bright boys. 



The Transforming Power of Chrlst. — "John Chrysostom in- 
geniously remarks that the animals which went out of Noah's ark 
went out the same as they came in. The crow went out a crow ; the 
wolf, a wolf; the fox, a fox. ' But the church transforms the ani- 



VIII: 34 



MATTHEW 



187 



34. And, behold, the v/hole city came out to meet Jesus : 
and when they saw him, they besought him that he would 
depart out of their coasts. 

mals she receives into her bosom ; not by any 
change in their substance, but by the extirpation 
of their sin.' The magic wand of a Circe for- 
merly metamorphised men into brutes ; but the 
Divine Word changes the brutes into true men. 
Yea, more than this ; it changes them into angels 
(Isa. ii. 6-9 ; i Cor. vi. 9-1 1)." — Choice Notes. 



^ 



A.D. 2S, 

A utiDnn. 
GADARA NEAR 

TUE SEA 
OF GALILEE. 

SECOND YKAU 

OF rum, 10 

MINISTRY. 

THE 

OnEAT GALILEAN 

MINISTUY. 

THE 
DEMONIAC. 



34. They besought Him that He would depart. " If a revival 
of the Lord's work were sure to interfere with our property interests, 
isn't it possible that some of us would want the revival postponed ? 
If we must empty our liquor-casks, or wind up our lotteries, or close 
our theatres, or abandon our tobacco-raising, as soon as the commu- 
nity felt the impulse of the Lord's presence, is it certain that we 
should not want the Lord to do his chief work in the 
next town } In war-time there was an enterprising New Kolisrlon 
Englander who had a peripatetic embalming establish- Bushicss. 
ment just at the rear of the Federal army in Virginia. 
In expressing his growing regret of the terrible consequences of the 
prolonged hostilities, he said one day, — as if in evidence of his self- 
forgetful patriotism and humanity, — ' I tell you, chaplain, I'd be 
right glad to have peace come, even though it would greatly inter- 
fere with my business.' That man was just a little improvement on 
the hog-raising Gergesenes. Are there not some very good persons 
who would view almost any reform with suspicion if its progress 
must surely be the death of their present business ? " 

— Rev, H, Clay Trtctnbull, in Sunday-School limes. 



188 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX: I, 2 



CHAPTER IX. 



T. And he entered into a ship, and passed over, and came 
into his own city. 

2. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, 
lying on a bed : and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the 
sick of the palsy : Son, be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven 
thee. 



A.D. 28. 

Spring. 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 

THE 

GREAT GALILEAN 

MINISTRT. 

THE 
PARALYTIC. 



2. They Brought to Him.— Brought by four (Mark). There 
are two pictures, often seen, entitled " The Rock of Ages." In one 
of them is a person clinging with |^bth hands to a cross 
uJeRock of °" ^ ^°^^ ^" ^^^ stormy sea. The other is the same idea. 
Ages. with the exception that, while with one hand the saved 
person is clinging to the cross, with the other she is 
reaching out and drawing another drowning one from the raging 
waves to the safety of the cross on the rock. This is the true pic- 
ture. 

Personal Power.— All the later years of my ministry I have kept 
a record of the experience of those who have united with the church 
for the purpose of learning the best means of reaching men. One of the 
questions asked was, " What was the instrumentality by which you 
were brought to Christ ? " And in almost every case some person was 
the means. On the other hand we have a similar testimony to the 
power of human instrumentality leading astray in "a report of 6oo 
cases of inebriety in the Kings County (N. Y.) Inebriate Asylum. 
Of these 6oo cases, 458 became inebriates from association, /. .?., from 
going with drinking men and indulging in the habit of treating." 



A Man Sick of the Palsy. 

The Palsy as a Type of Sin.— Sin in the soul takes all the 
forms which paralysis does in the body, (i) Sometimes it takes 
away or dulls the sense of feeling. Its victims are insensible to the 
goodness of God, the appeals of reason, the truths of religion. They 
are, as the Apostle says, " past feeling." (2) It sometimes weakens 
the will, so that even when men would do good, evil is present with 
them. They put off duty ; they know, but will not come to a deci- 



IX : 3-6 MATTHEW 189 



A.I>. 28. 

Sprins:. 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAB. 
THE 

PARALYTIC. 



3. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, 
This man blasphemeth. 

4. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think 
ye evil in your hearts ? 

5. For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee ; 
or to say, Arise and walk ? •! 

6. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power 

on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, talce up thy 
bed, and go unto thine house, 

sion. They become like a patient in one of our city hospitals, 
described in one of the illustrations below, where the will itself had 
lost its power of action. (3) Sometimes sin, like what in those days 
came under the name of palsy, produces a fixed condition of evil 
with intense tortures of conscience. 



Moral Paralysis. — In one of our city hospitals a young woman 
of beautiful face and form had lain motionless for many months. 
Except for the brightness of her face and the action of the hands, 
her body w^as apparently dead. Yet she spoke with great confidence 
of her restoration to health at some future time, and was enthusr- 
astic in planning good works then to be executed. A physician re- 
marked that it was the saddest case he had ever witnessed. It was 
a paralysis, not of the flesh, but of the mind ; it was a moral paraly- 
sis. The will itself had lost its power of action. She could plan for 
the future, but not will anything at the present moment. After a 
few months the inactivity bred fatal disorder and she passed away. 
This is a picture of the moral paralysis of many. 



3. This Man Blasphemeth, "for who can forgive sins but God 
only.". 
. Reference. — viii. 2. "Helplessness of Self- salvation." 



How helpless man is to save himself from the disease of sin may 
be illustrated by the young man in Paris who was examining a guillo- 
tine, and, from curiosity, lay down on the plank under the knife and 
found himself fastened ^there unable to escape without aid from 
others. 

5. Whether is Easier to Say, etc. — " In our Lord's argument 
it must be carefully noted that he does not ask which is easier, to for- 



190 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX : 7-9 

7. And he arose, and departed to his house. 

8. But when the multitudes saw //, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had 
given such power unto men. 

9. T[ And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting 
at the receipt of custom : and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and 
followed him. 

give sins, or to raise a sick man ; for it could not be affirmed that 
that of forgiving is easier than this of healing ; but which is easier, 
to claim this poiver or that ; to say, Thy sin be forgiven thee, or to 
say. Arise and walk ? .... It would be easier for a man equally- 
ignorant of the French and Chinese languages to claim to know the 
last than the first. Not that the language itself is easier, but that in 
the one case multitudes could disprove his claim in the other hardly 
a scholar or two in the land." — Troich. 



Thy Sins be Forgiven Thee. 

God's forgiving love is like the ocean which covers in its 
depths with equal ease a mole-hill or a mountain. 
Reference— vi. 9-13. 

8. And Glorified God. — Bunyan's Pilgrim at the cross when 
his burden of sin falls from his back. He leaps for joy, and three 
shining ones come to him, one saying, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." 
Another strips him of his rags and clothes him with a new robe. 
The third sets a mark on his forehead and gives him a book with a 
seal upon it. 

9. And He Said unto Him, Follow Me. 

"When Christ calls,' he also draws. ' Come,' says the sea to the 
river. ' Come,' says the magnet to the steel. ' Come,' says the spring 
to the sleeping life of the field and forest." — C. Stajijord. 



Picture.— The Callittg of Matthew, Bida, Carracci. 



And He Arose (he forsook all, Luke) and Followed Him.— 
It was the forsaking of a bad business and the remorse of con- 
science which grew out of it, of a disreputable life, of disloyalty to 
his country, of great temptations to dishonesty, of bad 
T; "■ ^ companionship. The repentant sinner always forsakes 
many things which it is blessed to leave behind, as the 



IX: 10 MATTHEW 191 



lo. H And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, 
behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with 
him and his disciples. 



drunkard his cups and his rags, as Bunyan's Pil- 
grim left behind him the City of Destruction and 
the burden of sins on his back. 



A.D. 28. 

Spring. 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND YEAR. 

MATTHEW'S 
FEAST. 



" The choice of Matthew, as an apostle, illustrates the power of the 
cross to elevate obscure and commonplace lives." — Chadwtck. 



The Beautiful Window from Rejected Glass. — " Macaulay 
tells of a poor apprentice who m.ade a cathedral window entirely out 
of pieces of glass that his master had condemned and thrown away. 
But when completed the window won the admiration of all. The 
master's boasted work was rejected, and the window made by the un- 
known artist from condemned material was given the place of honor 
in the great cathedral." So Christ takes fallen and sinful human 
souls, and is constructing out of them a beautiful temple of the Holy 
Ghost; and his glory and love shining through them, as the sun 
through pictured windows, makes them radiant Vv'ith divine beauty. 



Wondrous Possibilities.— One reason why Jesus chose a publi- 
can for one of the twelve was probably to give an object-lesson of 
hope to the most disreputable of sinners, those bound with the 
strongest fetters of sin. None were too far away for his gospel to 
reach and save them, none too deep in the mire of sin to be lifted 
from its depths even to the heights of glory. 



" Each human soul is like a cavern full of gems. The casual 
observer glances into it through some cranny, and all looks dark 
and sullen. But let light enter into it, lift a torch up to the walls, 
let God's sunlight fall into it and flood its open recesses, and lo ! it 
will flash with crystals and with amethysts, and each separate crys- 
tal will quiver under the touch of brightness with a transporting dis- 
covery of its own nature." — Farrar. 



The Aromatic Clay, praised for its fragrance, said, " I was but 
common clay till roses were planted in me." 



192 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX:II-I3 



11. And when the Pharisees saw zV, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your 
master with publicans and sinners ? 

12. But when Jesus heard that^ he said unto them, They that be whole need not 
a physician, but they that are sick. 

13. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice : 
for I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. 

II. Why Eateth your Master with Publicans. — "You can- 
not elevate, you cannot improve any whom you utterly despise. 
You cannot bring the best out of a man if you do not believe that 
the best is somewhere in him 

" The moon turns but one side to the earth ; it has anotheL 3ide 
in which there may be silver lights and shades undreamed of, seen 
only by the angels of God. So there are two sides to 
Seeing your character and mine. .... 

the Best ,,.,., 1 n 1 1 • 1 

in Man. " ^^^ thmk a person dull — why, that is because you 

are dull. An angel has been with you and you have 
known it not, and I imagine that to a spirit full of malice and self- 
conceit an angel would be very dull 

" If souls do not shine before you it is because you bring them no 
light to make them shine. Throw away your miserable, smouldering, 
fuming torch of conceit and hatred, lift up to them the light of love, 
and lo ! they will arise and shine ; yea, flame and burn with an 
undreamt of glory." — Cano}t Farrar. 



Fault-finding. — Momus, a deity of ancient Greece, was the god 

of fauk-finding. He found fault with everything and everybody. 

" Even Venus herself was exposed to his satire, and when 

he could find no fault with her person, he censured 'the 

noise made by her sandals of gold." He was eventually driven from 

Olympus, the abode of the Greek deities. 



13. I AM Come to Call, not the Righteous, but Sinners 
TO Repentance. 

Reference. See xx. 24. Loch Katrine. 



Library. — Leigh Hunt's poem,"Abou ben Adhem "; the poem 
" Beautiful Snow," in the " Snow-flake Album " (Am. Tract Soc.) ; 
Longfellow's " Legend Beautiful," in " Tales of a Wayside Inn." 



IX: 14-20 MATTHEW 193 

. ^ 



A.D. 28. 

Autumn. 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 

THE HEM 

OF HIS 
GARMENT. 



14. TI Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why- 
do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not ? 

15. And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the 
bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them ? 
but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken 
from them, and then shall they fast. 

16. No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old gar- 
ment ; for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is 
made worse. 

17. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles : else the bottles break, and the 
wine runneth out, and the bottles perish : but they put new wine into new bottles, and 
both are preserved. 

18. TI While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, 
and worshipped him, saying. My daughter is even now dead : but come and lay thy 
hand u]X)n her, and she shall live. 

19. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. 

20. *[\ And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve 
years, came behind hi7n, and touched the hem of his garment : 

17. Bottles. — " Our word bottle originally carried the true mean- 
ing, being a bottle of leather. In Spanish, bota means a leather 
bottle, a boot, and a butt. In Spain, wine is still brought to market in 
pig-skins. In the East, goat-skins are commonly used." 

— M. R. Vincetit. 

Necessity of New Forms. — The life of a seed is good for a seed, 
but it can never become a tree till it breaks away from its old shell 
and form, and lets its life take on new forms. The Gospel does not 
destroy, but fulfils. 

Reference. For applications by Christ, see v. 17-47. 



20. Touched the Hem of His Garment.— The crowd touched 
Jesus and received no healing influence. The woman touched 

Him in faith, and was made whole. Christ has untold blessings for 

all ; but what men receive from Him depends on the 

faith and love with which they come to Him. It is the "^toucM^ °^ 

common experience. To some Jesus is nothing ; to 

others He is life, love, inspiration, salvation. 

" The healing of His seamless dress 
Is by our beds of pain ; 
We touch Him in life's throng and press 
And we are whole again," 



194 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX: 21, 22 



21. For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. 

22. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of 
good comfort ; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole 
from that hour. 

Multitudes of men have seen apples fall, but only Newton received 
from the falling apple the law of gravition. Men still go through 
the world with " eyes and no eyes," and one writes a book where 
another sees nothing. Arthur Helps compares some 
Bird on ^^gj^ ^q ^-j^g birds on a telegraph wire, who are utterly 
Wire. unconscious of the messages of sorrow and joy, of busi- 
ness and friendship, — messages sometimes affecting 
whole nations, — which are passing right under their feet. It needs 
the battery and connecting instruments in order to read what passes 
on the wire. It needs hearts of love and faith, longings for holiness, 
and the spirit of prayer, if we would receive the blessings which Christ 
has for us all. 

" There is more medicine in Christ's garments than in all the 
apothecary shops in the world." 



Power of Touch.—" Some one tells of going into a jeweler's 
store to look at certain gems. Among other stones he was shown 
an opal. As it lay there, however, it appeared dull and altogether 
lustreless. Then the jeweler took it in his hand and held it for 
some moments, and again showed it to his customer. Now it 
gleamed and flashed with all the glories of the rainbow. It needed 
the touch and warmth of a human hand to bring out its 
The iridescence. 

^'jewel! ^'^ " There are human lives everywhere about us that are 
rich in their possibilities of beauty and glory. No gems 
or jewels are so precious ; but as we see them in their earthly condi- 
tion they are dull and lustreless, .... yet they need only the touch 
of the hand of Christ to bring out the radiance, the loveliness, the 
beauty of the divine image in them. And you and I must be the 
hand of Christ to these lustreless or stained lives. Touching them 
with our warm love, the sleeping splendor that is in them .... 
will yet shine out, the beginning of glory for them." — J. R. Miller. 



Library.— J. R. Miller's "Making the Most of Life," " Getting 
Christ's Touch," has several good illustrations. 



IX : 23-25 MATTHEW 195 



23. And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw 
the minstrels and the people making a noise, 

24. He said unto them, Give place : for the maid is not dead, 
but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. 

25. But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took 
her by the hand, and the maid arose. 



A.D. 28. 

Autumn. 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 

THE RULER'S 
DAUGHTER. 



The best friend is an atmosphere 
Warm with all inspirations dear. 
Wherein we breathe the large free breath 
Of life that hath no taint of death. 

Our friend is an unconscious part 

Of every true beat of our heart ; 

A strength, a growth, whence we derive 

God's health, that keeps the world alive." 



As we meet and touch each day 
The many travelers on our way, 

Let every such brief contact be 
A glorious, helpful ministry." 



Oh ! touch the hem of His garment 

And thou, too, shall be free ; 
His saving power, this very hour, 

Shall give new life to thee." — G. F. Root. 



22. Thy Faith hath made Thee Whole. — Take the case of a 
person saved from drowning by means of a rope thrown to him. 
The man who threw the rope may be said to have saved him, or the 
rope, or his grasping hold of the rope. So we may say that God saves, 
or Jesus saves, or faith saves, and all be true. 



24. Laughed Him to Scorn. — Kare>'e;i6)v, from K-ara, down from, 
as from a height, and yeAdw, to laugh — to laugh down upon one as 
basely inferior ; or Kara, agaz7tst — to laugh against one — expressing 
hostility. 

25. Took Her by the Hand, saying, Talitha Curnz, in the com- 
mon dialect of the country. " Talitha, ' maiden, ' is in its root a va- 



196 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX : 26 

26. And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land. 

riation of the word for a little lamb. How exquisite from the lips of 
the Good Shepherd, who gave his life for the sheep." — Chadwick. 



" The Touches of Jesus, like his miracles, were at the same time 
acted parables or dramatic lessons. Glance at some of these in- 
stances of parable-touches, and see how significant they were. For 
example, there was the touch of encouragement when he took Peter 
by the hand ; the touch of affection when he laid his hands on the 
little children and blessed them; the touch of instruction yN\i^n he 
touched the ears and tongue of the deaf stammerer of Decapolis ; 
the touch of sympathy in the case of the unclean leper. This touch- 
ing of his makes Him a very Gospel." 

— Condensed from George D. Boardman, D.D. 



Library. — Longfellow's poem, " She is not Dead, the Child of our 
Affection." 

TALITHA CUML 

" Our little one was sick, and the sickness pressed her sore. 
We sat beside her bed, and we felt her hands and head. 
And in our hearts we prayed this one prayer o'er and o'er : 
' Come to us, Christ the Lord ; utter thine old-time word, 
' Talitha cumi ! ' 

And as the night wore on, and the fever flamed more high, 

And a new look burned and grew in the eyes of tender blue ; 
Still louder in our hearts uprose the voiceless cry, 
' O Lord of love and might, say once again to-night 
'Talitha cumi !' 

And then, and then — he came ; we saw him not, but felt. 

And he bent above the child, and she ceased to moan, and smiled, 
And although we heard no sound, as around the bed we knelt, 

Our souls were made aware of a mandate in the air, 
' Talitha cumi ! ' 

And as at dawn's fair summons faded the morning star, 
Holding the Lord's hand close, the child Vv^e loved arose. 

And with him took her way to a country far away ; 
And we would not call her dead, for it was his voice that said 
* Talitha cumi ! ' " — Susan Coolidge, 



IX:^7»28 MATTHEW 197 



27. T[ And when Jesus departed thence, two bUnd men fol- 
lowed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of Darid, have mercy 
on us. 

28. And when he was come into the house, the blind men 
came to him : and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I 
am able to do this ? They said unto him. Yea, Lord. *t 

Pictures. — Raising Jairics Daughter, Richter, Hoffmann, Dor^. 



A.D. 28. 

Autumn. 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND YEAK. 

THE TWO 
BLIND MEN. 



Reference. See on xx. 30-34. 



27. Two Blind Men.— Mr. Ruskin says that "the greatest thing 

a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and to tell 

what it sees in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one 

who can think ; but thousands can think for one w.ho can see. To 

see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion all in one." If one can 

see, 

" The common sun, the air, the skies. 

To him are opening paradise." 



The Blind Boy's Experience.—" A little boy was born blind. 
At last an operation was performed — the light was let in slowly, 
When one day his mother led him out of doors and un- 
covered his eyes, and for the first time he saw the sky /c-^h^^ 
and the earth. ' Oh, mother,' he cried, ' why did you 
not tell me it was so beautiful ? ' She burst into tears, and said, * I 
tried to tell you, dear, but you could not understand me.' So it is 
when we try to tell what is in Christ. Unless the spiritual sight is 
opened by the Holy Spirit we cannot understand." 

— London Sunday-School Chronicle, 



First Sight of the Sunlight.— Aristotle, in one of his works, 
fancies the feelings of one who, having lived in darkness all his life, 
should for the first time behold the rising of the sun. He 
might have had some idea of the world from the light of "^ ^ ® ^ 
candles or of moon and stars ; but when the sun rose, what 
new glories would burst on his vision ! How much more beautiful, 
more perfect, far-reaching than he could have conceived ! The dan- 
gers, too, would be shown in clearer light, as well as the safe roads. 
Like this was the coming of Christ to the world, " a daysprijig from 



198 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONB IX 129 31 



29. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. 

30. And their eyes were opened ; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that 
no man know //. 

31. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. 

on high." Like this is the opening of the eyes of the soul by the 
presence of Christ. 

29. According to Your Faith. — The three arrows of Joash, 
2 Kings xiii. 14-19 ; the poor widow's oil, 2 Kings iv. 1-7. 
Ruskin's " Modern Painters," Vol. V., pp. 362-365. 



30. And Their Eyes were Opened. — There are three ways in 
which Christ opens the eyes of the blind in modern times : 

First. By the blind asylums, their relieving power, and the train- 
ing they can give to the blind, under the influence of the Gospel. 

Second. The triumphs of the blind, in spite of their blindness. 
Witness Helen Keller, deaf, dumb and blind, but at the age of 16 
able to pass the Harvard examinations for RadclifTe College ; wit- 
ness Milton, the poet and statesman ; Kitto, the traveler and author, 
throwing much light on the Bible; Prescott, the historian; Faucett, 
the blind statesman discussing in Parliament the intricacies of finance 
and conducting the most laborious executive department ; Herres- 
hoff, the blind boat-builder designing the finest yachts ; Huber, the 
blind entomologist making scientific discoveries. 
Third. Spiritual Insight : 
" And when a damp 

Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand 
The thing became a trumpet, whence he blew 

Soul-animating strains — alas, too few." — Wordsworth. 

*' On my bended knee 

I recognize thy purpose clearly shown ; 
My vision thou hast dimmed, that I may see 
Thyself, thyself alone. 

"Visions come and go, 

Shapes of resplendent beauty round me throng; 
From angel lips I seem to hear the flow 
Of soft and holy song." 

■ — Miss E. Lloyd on Milton's Blindness o 



IX : 32-35 MATTHEW 199 

^ 



A.I>. 28. 

A ututftn. 
CAPERNAmr. 

SECOND TEAR. 

THE DUMB 
DEMONIAC. 



32. % As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb 
man possessed with a devil. 

33. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake : and 
the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. 

34. But the Pharisees said. He casteth out devils through the 
prince of the devils. 

35. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teach- 
ing in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every 
sickness and every disease among the people. 

The Eye Ointment. — "In the Arabian Nights' tales, there is a 
story of a remarkable ointment which, if rubbed on the eye, makes 
one see all the riches in the world ; the gold hidden in the mines, 
the diamonds treasured in secret places. Macaulay, the great 
English writer, said that education is like that ointment, opening 
the eyes to see so much more." — President Seth Low. 



Max Muller proposes the classification of people into bright 
eyes and dark eyes. He means by bright eyes, people 
who see all that is bright and good ; by dark eyes, those ^"f^ ^^^ 
who see nothing but what is dark and bad. He thinks 
we are all born with bright eyes, and that it is as we get spoiled by 
worldly experience that they grow dim and dark. 



Library. — Wordsworth's poem on " Milton's Blindness "; Miss 
Elizabeth Lloyd's poem on the same ; Longfellow's " Blind Bar- 
timeus." 

Reference. See on xx. 30-34. 



35. The Vale of Tears.— Few collections of paintings have pro- 
duced so great an effect upon me at the first view as Dore's magnifi- 
cent Christian pictures in London, and especially the last picture he 
finished, just before his death, "The Vale of Tears." At the head 
of a deep valley stands Christ, and all the light of the picture shines 
from him. All kinds of human suffering are gathered there for him 
to heal. The lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the sick are re- 
stored. A dying mother holds out her child to him, conquerors 



200 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IX : 36-38 



36. % But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, 
because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 

37. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly iS plenteous, but the labour- 
ers are few ; 

38. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers 
into his harvest, 

hand him their swords, and kings take off their crowns before him. 
It is the vision of the redemption of the world. 

Reference. See on viii. 16, 17. 



Library. — Hood's poems, "The Lady's Dream," and " Doing 
Good " in Foster's '* Cyclopedia of Poetical Illustrations," p. 905. 

'y yS. - P ^AY YE, YE That are Laboring.— For the need is for bet- 
ter laborers, as well as more ; not merely " more men, but more 
man "; make your present engines twice as powerful and you have 
practically doubled your engines. Put more of the electric current 
through your wires, and improve your lamps, and you have increased 
the light. 



X:i 



Matthew 



201 



CHAPTER X. 



I. And when he had called unto Mm his twelve disciples, 
y he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, 
and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. 



A.D. 28. 

The choice of 
the 12 tvas at 
Midsummer. 
JUST BEFORE 
THE SERMON 
ON THK MOUNT. 
ON A 

MOUNTAIN 
NEAR THE 

SEA OF 
GALILEE. 

(HOKNS OP 

HATTIN.) 

SECOND YEAR. 



The Twelve Apostles— their Personality 
AND Possibilities.— They were plain men who 
had not been perverted by the false philosophies, 
traditions, and morals of the day. They were 
mostly working men, business men, practical men, 
but of great variety of early training and of busi- 
ness life. Some were poor ; some were com- 
paratively well off ; some belonged to country villages, some to 
the city ; several were fishermen. " There were two, at least," says 
Dr. Gibson, " the choice of whom seemed to violate all dictates of 
wisdom and prudence, — Matthew the publican, of a hated class, in- 
viting hostility ; and Simon the Zealot, a radical revolutionist in 
politics." Yet the choice of these showed the broadness of the gos- 
pel, and its power. They were men of ability ; there were great 
possibilities in them. Christ transformed common men into apos- 
tles, the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem, the leaders of 
the kingdom that was to transform the world. The charcoal was 
changed into diamonds. They were far from faultless, but the faults 
were flaws in a jewel, not the crudeness of the charcoal. 



Apostles Made from Common Men. — " There is a legend of an 
artist who long sought for a piece of sandal-wood, out of which to 
carve a Madonna. At last he was about to give up in despair, leaving 
the vision of his life unrealized, when in a dream he was bidden to 
shape the figure from a block of oak-wood which was destined for the 
fire. Obeying the command, he produced from the log of common 
fire-wood a masterpiece. In like manner many people 
wait for great and brilliant opportunities for doing the „ ^ onnas 
good things, the beautiful things, of which they dream, Fire-wood, 
while through all the plain, common days, the very op- 
portunities they require for such deeds lie close to them in the sim- 
plest and most familiar passing events, and in the homeliest circum- 



202 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X : 2-4 



2. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these : The first, Simon, who is called 
Peter, and Andrew his brother ; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother ; 

3. Philip, and Bartholomew ; Thomas, and Matthew, the pubUcan ; James the son 
of Alpheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus ; 

4. Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. 

Stances. They wait to find sandal-wood out of which to carve Ma- 
donnas, while far more lovely Madonnas than they dream of are 
hidden in the common logs of oak they spurn with their feet in the 
wood-yard." — J, R. Miller, in Making the Most of Life. 



It is very noticeable in all history that the larger part of the great 
men in every department have sprung from the common people, so 
far as the absence of wealth or rank, or great ancestry can make 
them common. 



The Variety of Talent and its Value.— In Fiske's "Criti- 
cal Period of American History " we are told that the fifty-five mem- 
bers of the Convention for forming the Federal Constitutional were, 
on the whole, the best selection for the purpose. Two or 
Men of the three were of the first order, leading spirits. A dozen 
C n^enU n ^^^^ excellent critics, representing conflicting interests. 
The rank and file were thoroughly respectable, common- 
place men, admirably adapted to proclaim results and get their 
neighbors to adopt it. A farmer's speech in the Massachusetts con- 
vention to adopt the Federal Constitution was the most effective 
(pp. 224-228). 



Two BY Two. — The apostles were sent out two by two (Mark vi. 
7), for thus they were more complete and well balanced. Each 
would supplement the work of the other. They would reach differ- 
ent classes of minds, and where one failed the other would be ready 
with the right word. 



*' We are told of the Persian bird, Juftak, which has only one wing. 

On the wingless side the male bird has a hook and the female a ring. 

, -X , When thus fastened together and only when fastened 
The Juftak. , , r. -^i , • 1 in. • 

together, can they fly. The human race is that Persian 



X : 2-4 MATTHEW 203 



bird, the Juftak. When man and woman unite 
they may soar skyward." — Gail Hamilton. 

This is true not only of man and woman in 
Christian work, but of workers in general. Two 
are more than twice one. 

" So when two work together, each for each 
Is quick to plan and can the other teach ; 
Bat when alone one seeks the best to know, 
His skill is weaker and his thoug^hts are slow." 



A.I>. 28. 

The choice of 
the 12 ivas at 
Mid summer. 

ON A 
MOUNTAIN 
NEAR THE 

SEA OF 

GALILEE. 

(hokns of 

hatt!n.) 

second tear 

THE TWELVE 

APOSTLES. 



Unity in Variety ; Counterbalances. — " One of the ways Je- 
sus takes to overcome their imperfection in doing a work which 
called for perfection in the workers was in his grouping of the apos- 
tles. Our imperfection very commonly is of the nature of halfness. 
We see one side of a truth and not the other. We feel the greatness 
of some quality so strongly that we depreciate some other quality 
which seems opposed to it, but is really complementary. Our Lord 
seems to have acted with careful reference to this in sending out his 
apostles two by two in the order indicated in Matthew. 

" Peter, the bold, impetuous man, acting on the spur of the moment, 
is joined with Andrew the apostle, instinctively chosen by the Scotch 
as their national patron, as far-seeing, cautious, careful, full of the 
sense of difficulty. 

" James and John differed greatly in age. John must have been 
very young, for he outlived Jesus nearly seventy years, So the Mas- 
ter paired them off, old and young together. 

" * He loves when youth and age are met, 
Fervent old age and youth serene. 
Their high and low in concord set. 
For sacred song, joy's golden mean.' 

"Philip, the slow-witted, was paired with Nathanael Bartholomew, 
the quick-witted. 

" Thomas, the doubting, skeptical intellect, was joined with Mat- 
thew, one of the heroes of faith. 

" James, the author of the epistle, the most practical of men, was 
united with Jude, the man of doctrine. 

" Simon the Zealot, a man of zeal, enthusiasm, independence, and 
patriotism, was with Judas Iscariot, the business economist. ' So the 
Master made one whole man out of two half men. And so his church 



204 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X : $-8 

5. These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying. Go not into the 
way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not : 

6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 

7. And as ye go, preach, saying. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. 

8. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils : freely ye have 
received, freely give. 

should go forth, two by two, each with the one most unlike himself, 
and therefore best able to help him.' " 

— Pres. R. E. Thompson, S. T.D., in Sunday- School Times. 



Pictures. — Di'irer's St. John and St. Peter {Munich). Thorwald- 
sen's Statue of St. Peter {Copenhagen). St. Philip and St. James, Hans 
Memling {Venice). St. Mark, Murillo {Madrid), Gerini {Prato). St. 
John, Raphael, Domcnichino. Heads of the Apostles, after original 
drawings by Da Vinci, all at Weimar except Thaddeus and Simon, 
which are in England. 

5. These Twelve Jesus Sent Forth. — Scott, in one of his 
poems, refers to the beautiful custom of ancient Scotland of assem- 
bling their clans by means of \h^ fiery cross. A light cross of wood 

was charred at its point and the flames quenched in the 

„. '^*'f blood of a goat. This was sent around to the villages 
Fiery Cross. , , , 1 , , , • . , • 

and homes of the clan, each one sendmg it on to his 

next neighbor with only the name of the meeting-place, and every 

one was bound under fearful anathemas to obey the sign. 

"When flits this cross from man to man, 
Vich-Alpine's summons to his clan. 
Burst be the ear that fails to heed ! 
Palsied the foot that shuns to speed ! " 

So is Christ's cross, scorched with his sufferings, stained with his 
blood, the summons to every disciple to go forth and preach the 
gospel. 

6. Lost Sheep. — Sinners are like lost sheep going away from a 
loving shepherd and the green pastures and still waters he provides, 
wandering at their own will after forbidden delights till they are lost 
in the wilderness of sin and surrounded by a thousand dangers, suf- 
fering from hunger and thirst, unable to find the way back, yet sure 
to perish unless they do. 

7,8. Preach, Heal. — "A report of the Italian government de- 



X:9-I7 



MATTHEW 



205 



9. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses ; 

10. Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither 
shoes, nor yet staves : for the workman is worthy of his meat. 

11. And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire 
who in it is worthy ; and there abide till ye go thence. 

12. And when ye come into a house, salute it. 

13. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon 
it : but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. 

14. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, 
when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of "^ "^ 
your feet. 

15. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and 
Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. 

16. ^f Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves : be ye therefore 
wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. 

17. But beware of men : for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will 
scourge you in their synagogues ; 



A.D. 29. 

Winter and 

Spring. 
GALILEE. 

BEGINNING OF 

THE THIItn 

YEAR OF JESUS' 

MINISTRY. 

INSTRUC- 
TIONS TO 

THE 
TWELVE. 



scribing a great shipwreck, said : ' A large ship was seen 
coming close to shore last night. We endeavored to 
give every assistance through the speaking trumpet; 
nevertheless, 401 bodies were washed ashore this morn- 
ing.' That shows the futility of attempting to save man 
by speech. It is not the whole truth, but it is a part of the truth." 

— Prof. Henry Drummond. 



Saving a 

Wreck by a 

Speaking 

Trumpet. 



8. Freely ye Have Received, Freely Give.— There is but 
one lake on the surface of the globe from which there 
is no outlet and that is the Dead Sea, which receives 
much, but gives nothing. Such a lake is a perfect illus- 
tration of a church all whose efforts terminate on itself. Around it 
there will be desolation and in it there were will be no life. 



The 
Dead Sea. 



Bog or Brook. — A flowing brook gives as freely as it receives, 
and it is a joy, a refreshment. It turns the desert into a garden. It 
is life-giving. A bog or marsh does not give as freely as it receives, 
and it is an eye-sore, a blot on the landscape, breeding reptiles and 
exhaling disease. 

"The sun may shine upon the clod till it is warm, 
Warm for its own poor darkling self to live. 
He smites the diamond, and oh, how glows the gem 
Chilling itself, irradiant to give." — Mary K. A. Stone, 



206 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X:l8-25 



i8. And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testi- 
mony against them and the Gentiles. 

ig. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak : 
for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 

20. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in 
you. 

21. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child : 
and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to 
death. 

22. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake : but he that endureth to 
the end shall be saved. 

23. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another : for verily I say 
unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come. 

24. The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. 

25. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his 
lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall 
they call them of his household .? 

22. Library. — "Hated of all men." Lowell's poems, "The Pres- 
ent Crisis." 

" Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne. 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow keeping watch above his own." 



23. When They Persecute You.— Persecution aided the com- 
ing of the Son of man. The air is full of particles of various kinds. An 
astronomer lately on the top of a high mountain found as many as 200,- 
000 in a cubic inch of air. These particles seem to intercept the sun- 
light, as do the clouds, the earth, and every solid thing 
of llffht" upon it. But the diffusion of light, so that we can use it 
in our daily duties, is caused by the reflection of the sun- 
light from these particles, each one of which becomes a centre of 
light, a miniature moon. Otherwise we could see only the sun, and 
to look at that would blind us. The world is full of light by the very 
things that obstruct the light. 



Picture in Wickliffe's Bible— "There is a picture frontispiece 
in Wickliffe's Bible which was issued contrary to the commands of 
the church authorities. There is a fire burning and spreading rather 
rapidly, representing true Christianity. Around this spreading fire 
are congregated a number of significant individuals, all trying to 
devise methods whereby they can put the fire out. One with horns 



X : 26-29 MATTHEW 207 

^ 



A.D. 29. 

Winter and 

spring. 
GALILEE. 

BEGINNING OF 

THE THIRD 

TEAR OF JESUS' 

MIHISTRY. 

INSTRUC- 
TIONS TO 

THE 
TWELVE. 



26. Fear them not therefore, for there is nothing covered that 
shall not be revealed ; and hid, that shall not be known. 

27. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light : 
and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house- 
tops. 

28. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able 
to kill the soul : but rather fear him which is able to destroy 
both soul and body in hell. 

29. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and one of . 
them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. 

and tail represents Satan. Another is the Pope with his red-coated 
cardinals, who forbade the promulgating of the Bible among the 
common people. Another represents infidelity. At length one 
suggests that they all make a united effort to blow on the fire till 
they blow it out. * The resolution is adopted, and there they are, 
with swollen cheeks and extended lips, blowing upon the fire with 
all their might, but, instead of blowing it out, they are blowing it 
up, and they only blow themselves out of breath. The fire is inex- 
tinguishable.' " — Frojn Richard Roberts, in the Biblical Illustrator. 



26. Fear them Not therefore. — " Through the darkness of the 
midnight the observer often catches the radiance of a stream of 
light. It is a meteor. And what is a meteor ? From the vast 
depths of space, flying with tremendous force, come fragments, per- 
haps of exploded planets, hurtling through space, and ready to strike 
with tremendous force, as sometimes they have done, 
destroying anything that stood in their way, and bury- Meteorites 
ing themselves deeply in the soil. These meteorites, ^eteors^ 
coming within the limits of the atmosphere, and driven 
with such terrific speed, are ignited by friction, flash out their bright- 
ness amid the gloom of night, and in most instances, unless they are 
very large, they are entirely consumed before they reach the earth. 
So the meteorite becomes a meteor ; and the stone flying through 
the atmosphere, instead of smiting the earth illuminates the sky. 
And there are troubles, and trials, and dangers which seem some- 
times to threaten to crush us, and destroy us, which only light up 
the heavens with new glory and flash brighness on our pilgrim way." 

_____ — Common People. 

29. Sparrows, .... One of Them shall not fall to the 
Ground without your Father. 



208 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X 130,3 1 

30. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 

31. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. 

A WONDERFUL THOUGHT. 

" The great round world is full of things,— 
Not only armies and realms and kings, 

And lands and seas and forests tall. 
But little things, so small to see, 
So many they cannot counted be. 

Yet, wonderful thought, the Lord knows all ! 

** The wide-winged eagles he sees, and too 
The tiny nest with its eggs so blue. 

Which the meadow-lark has hidden close : 
Not only the storm-cloud sweeping vast, 
But the least dew- droplet, folded fast 

In the bosom of the summer rose. 

" The filament fine of purpled gold. 
On the crest of the butterfly one day old, 

Is ordered and measured by his will ; 
He hears the thrill of the bobolink's song. 
And, though the thunder be loud and long. 

If the cricket chirps, he notes it still. 

" He counts each drop of the lifting wave, 
Each grain of sand on each nameless grave, 

Each blade and ear of the manifold grains. 
He hears the sigh of the heart's unrest. 
The laugh from the happy childish breast. 

And the plash of a tear in the rush of the rains. 

** Oh, wonderful thought, that he can know all, 
Not only the mighty, but the small ; 

Not only the Alp, but each flake of its snows ! 
And he pities and pardons, and loves so well. 
That you and I in the thought may dwell, 
And not be afraid, though we know he knows." 

— Susan Cooltd^e. 



X:32 



MATTHEW 



209 



32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him 
will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 

HE CARETH FOR ME. 

" What can it mean ? Is it aught to him 
That the nights are long and the days are dim ? 
Can he be touched by the grief I bear, 
Which saddens the heart and whitens the hair ? 
About his throne are eternal calms, 
And the strong, glad music of happy psalms, 
And bliss unruffled by any strife, 
How can he care for my little life ? 

" And yet I want him to care for me 
While I live in this world where sorrows be ! 
When the lights die down from the path I take. 
When strength is feeble and friends forsake. 
When love and music that once did bless 
Have left me to silence and loneliness, 
And my life-song changes to sobbing prayers. 
Then my heart cries out for a God who cares. 

" When shadows hang over the whole day long, 
And my spirit is bowed with shame and wrong;. 
When I am not good, and the deeper shade 
Of conscious sin makes my heart afraid, 
And this busy world has too much to do 
To stay in its course to help me through. 
And I long for a Saviour — can it be 
That the God of the universe cares for me ? 

" O wonderful story of deathless love ! 
Each child is dear to that heart above. 
He fights for me when I cannot fight ; 
He comforts me in the gloom of night j 
He lifts the burden, for he is strong ; 
He stills the sigh and awakes the song ; 
The sorrow that bows me down he bears. 
And loves and pardons because he cares ! " 



►i^ 



A.D. 29. 

Wi nter and 

Spring. 

GALILEE. 

BEGINNING OP 

THE THIRD 

TEAR OF JESUS' 

MINISTRY. 

INSTRUC- 
TIONS TO 

THE 
TWELVE. 



*V- 



^ 



-Anon. 



32. Confess Me, — buo7.oyr}ou h kfiol, to confess in my case, or when 
my cause is at stake. — Thayer. 



210 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X : 33-39 



33. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my 
Father which is in heaven. 

34. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth : I came not to send peace, 
but a sword. 

35. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter 
against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 

36. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 

37. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me : and he 
that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 

38. And he thf't taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 

39. He that findeth his life shall lose it : and he that loseth his life for my sake 
shall find it. 

" Prof. Vincent gives the words a different phase, — confess in me. 
The idea is that of confessing Christ out of a state of oneness within 
him. Abide in me, and being in me, confess me. Observe that 
this gives great force to the corresponding clause, in which Christ 
places himself in a similar relation with those he confesses, ' I will 
confess in him.' " — Word-Studies. 

The corresponding clause is especially comforting, if we take the 
first meaning given above, — " in his case .... when his cause is at 
stake will I confess also before my Father." 



Confession. — Enlisting in an army under the flag, signing the 
temperance pledge ; these confirm and strengthen those who thus 
take a decisive stand. 

Expression. — The life of a tree must have outward expression. 
If you strip off the leaves of a tree as fast as they unfold, the tree 
not only cannot bear fruit, but it cannot even live. 



38. Taketh Not His Cross. 
Reference. See on xvi. 24. 

Library. — The little book, " The Cross-Bearer," contains a series 
of pictures of the different ways of bearing the cross, — the wrong 
ways and the right way. The book, "The Changed Cross," furnishes 
another illustration. The legend of " Christophorus " in Mrs. Jamie- 
son's " Sacred and Legendary Art." Dr. Bushnell's Sermons, " The 
Cross a Burden or a Glory," and the " Schonberg-Cotta Family," 



X : 40-42 MATTHEW 211 



40. IT He that receiveth you receiveth me ; and he that re- 
ceiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 

41. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet 
shall receive a prophet's reward ; and he that receiveth a right- 
eous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a 
righteous man's reward. 

42. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these 
little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, 
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. ^" *i* 

Library. — Hawthorne's "Mosses from an Old Manse," "The 
Celestial Railroad," for those who would reach the city of God with- 
out the cross. 



A.D. 29. 

Winter and 

Spring. 
GALILEE. 

BEGINNING OP 

THE THIRD 

TEAR OF JESUS' 

MINISTRY. 

A CUP 

OF COLD 
WATER. 



40. He THAT Receiveth you Receiveth Me. — "'Go a little 
deeper and you'll find the emperor,' said the wounded soldier of 
Napoleon's body-guard, to the surgeon probing for the ball. And 
in the deepest soul of Dr. A. J. Gordon was the shrine of the per- 
sonal Christ." — Dr. Pier son. 



42. Library. — Lowell's " Vision of Sir Launfal : 

" Not what we give, but what we share, — 
For the gift without the giver is bare ; 
Who gives himself with his alms, feeds three, 
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me." 

Longfellow's "Legend Beautiful." 



" If it be but a cup of cold water that's given. 
Like the widow's two mites, it is something for heaven." 

— Whittier, 



WROUGHT INTO GOLD. 

I saw a smile, — to a poor man 'twas given. 

And he was old. 
The sun broke forth : I saw that smile in heaven 

Wrought into gold, 
Gold of such lustre was never vouchsafed to us ; 
It made the very light of day more luminous. 



212 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS X : 42 

" I saw a toiling woman, sinking down 

Footsore and cold. 
A soft hand covered her — the humble gown. 

Wrought into gold. 
Grew straight imperishable, and will be shown 
To smiling angels gathered round the judgment throne 

" Wrought into gold ! We that pass down life's hours 

So carelessly. 
Might make the dusty way a path of flowers 

If we would try. 
Then every gentle deed we've done, or kind word given. 
Wrought into gold, would make us wondrous rich in heaven." 



XI : 1-6 



MATTHEW 



213 



CHAPTER XL 



1. And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of 
commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach 
and to preach in their cities. 

2. Now when John had heard in the prison the works of 
Christ, he sent two of his disciples, 

3. And said unto him. Art thou he that should come, or do 
we look for another ? 

4. Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John 
again those thmgs which ye do hear and see : 

5. The blind received their sight, and the lame walk, the 
lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, 
and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 

6. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. 



•in- 



verse 1— 
Autumn o_f 

A.D. 28 
to Spring 0/ 
A.D. 29. 

GALILEE. 

Verses 2-19— 
Suvimer or 
Aututnn 0/ 
A.D. 28. 

SECOND TEAK. 

Luke vii : 18-35. 

DELEGATION 
OF JOHN'S 
DISCIPLES. 



1-6. 



John Seeking to Know Jesus. 
" Who comes to God an inch, through doubt 
In blazing light God will advance a mile to 



ings dim, 
him." — Robia. 



Examples of Discouraged Workers. — Almost all men of great 
and stirring deeds have had their seasons of discouragement and 
depression. Moses, when the people complained in the desert, 
himself complained to God, " I am not able to bear all this people 
alone, because it is too heavy for me" (Num. xi. 10-15). So David 
said, " O Lord, why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble " 
(Ps. X. i). Elijah, after his mighty deed on Carmel, lay down 
under the " juniper " tree, and wished to die. Almost every 
worker for God has at some time been with Bunyan's Christian in 
Doubting Castle of Giant Despair. No wonder, then, that the young 
prophet, John the Baptist, had for a brief time this bitter experience, 
and, like Hopeful, forgot that he had the key of deliverance in his 
bosom. 

One cause was probably physical weakness and ill health caused 
by long confinement in a damp, dreary dungeon. View- 
ing the divine dealings with us through such a medium, ^pression 
is like looking at nature through blue glass. Even the Health. 
sunshine seems dreary. It takes more religion to make 
a dyspeptic smile than a perfectly healthy person to rejoice in Pisgah 
glories. 



214 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : l6 

Another cause was the depression caused by reaction after a long 
continued nervous strain in his exalted labors. The Valley of Hu- 
miliation and of the Shadow of Death is often but a brief journey 
from the Land of Beulah and the Delectable Mountains. 



Another cause may have been the narrowness of his outlook. In 
the midnight darkness of his dungeon he could not easily realize 
that the world might be flooded with light. In his own seeming 
failure, he might not see signs of success elsewhere. In the smoke 
and noise of the undecided battle one cannot see the victories or 
hear the shouts of triumph in pther parts of the battlefield. 



Luther's Experience. — " At one time I was sorely vexed and 
tried by my own sinfulness, by the wickedness of the world, and by 
the dangers that beset the church. One morning I saw my wife 
dressed in mourning. Surprised, I asked her who had died. ' Do 
you not know .^ ' she replied. 'God in heaven is dead.' 'How can 
you talk such nonsense, Katie.'' ' I said. 'How can God die.'* Why, 
he is immortal, and will live through all eternity.' ' Is that really 
true?' she asked. 'Of course,' I said, still not perceiving what she 
was aiming at, ' how can you doubt it. As surely as there is a God 
in heaven, so sure is it that he can never die.' 'And yet,' she said, 
'though you do not doubt that, yet you are so hopeless and dis- 
couraged.' Then I observed what a wise woman my wife was, and 
mastered my sadness." — Licther {Table Talk), 



Joseph's Wagons.— Facts are the irrefutable evidence of Chris- 
tianity. They are like Joseph's wagons. The words of Jacob's sons 
could not convince him that Joseph was alive, but when he saw the 
wagons his son had sent, then he believed. So the religion of Jesus 
is not a mere theory; it is proved abundantly by facts. The lives 
that have been made better, the fact that it does change for good all 
those who receive it into their hearts, that wherever it enters a com- 
munity or a nation it elevates them, — these are facts like Joseph's 
wagons, that should convince men. 



The Two Maps — In the volumes containing the United States 
census are a number of maps or charts showing, by means of vary- 
ing shades of colors, the degrees in which various things pertaining 



Sujnmer or 
Aututnn 0/ 
A.D. 28. 

SECOND TEAR. 

Luke vii : 18-35. 

DELEGATION 
OF JOHN'S 
DISCIPLES. 



XI: 16 MATTHEW 215 

to our country's welfare prevail in different parts "^ 
of the land ; as, for instance, wealth, ignorance, 
various diseases, different classes of the population. 
Now, if there were to be made two maps of the 
world, one showing the happiness, comforts, 
morality, good deeds, benevolent gifts, means of 
innocent enjoyment, the light shades showing 4 
the countries in which a large degree of happi- 
ness is enjoyed, and the shades growing darker as the blessings grow 
less ; the other map showing the prevalence of Chris- 
tianity, the lands where the purest Christianity is most * cjiarts^^* 
prevalent being represented in white, and the shades 
darkening as the lands have a less pure Christianity, or it is less preva- 
lent, down to the blackness of utter heathenism — it would be found 
that these two maps almost exactly coincide. The more Christianity, 
the more happiness ; and blessings lessen and sorrows multiply in 
proportion as there is less of the Christian religion. 

Reference. See on vii. i6. By their fruits ye shall know them. 



4, 5. Go AND SHOW John again those Things, etc.— Jesus 
showed to John the old familiar things in a new light. The old 
gems were polished to reflect brighter rays. The old stars had new 
meaning. The old letters spelled new words. 



Library. — In Edwin Arnold's " Light of Asia," we are told of the 
seven fears of the king's dream being interpreted to be the seven 
joys instead. 

Reference, xvi. 21. 

The New Vision and New Life. — " Byron makes the illustrious 
Bonnivard dig footholds in the walls of his dungeon, by which he 
climbs to the lofty window of his cell to get a look at the impressive 
mountains of his native Switzerland. For weary years he had been 
confined in the prison of Chillon below the level of the waters of 
Lake Geneva. One day a bird sang at the prison window the sweet- 
est song he had ever heard. It resurrected his heart of stone. It 
created a yearning for a look over the land which was _ ^ . 

, ^ The Prisoner 

free to the bird. So the prisoner dug footholds m the ©f Chillon. 

plaster of the wall and climbed to the window above. 

He looked out and he saw the mountain unchanged. He saw the snow 



216 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : /-Q 



7. II And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning 
John, What went ye out ino the wilderness to see ? A reed shaken with the wind ? 

8. But what went ye out for to see ? A man clothed in soft raiment ? behold, they 
that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. 

9. But what went ye out for to see ? A prophet ? yea, I say unto you, and more 
than a prophet. 

of a thousand years, and learned patience. That look put new life 
into him and gave him a vision that lasted him to the end. From 
that sight he obtained rest, strength, solace. I mean to climb up 
to God that I may get God's vision of life, and be forever consoled 
by the sight of something grand and inviting beyond this life, in 
which I am now as in a prison. I mean to catch a glimpse of the 
towering peaks of immortality. I am cutting footholds for my faith 
in the promises of God." — David Gregg, D.D. 



5. The Poor have the Gospel Preached to Them. — That the 
Gospel is for the poor is very clearly seen in comparing the advan- 
tages of the poor in Christian lands with their condition in all 
others. In no other lands are the poor so near the rich 
The Gospel j^ advantages. The Gospel is for the ooor: they can 
for the Poor. , . . , ^ . , ., ,. ' ^ • . , 

worship m the most expensive buildings. Printing has 

made Bibles so cheap that the poorest can read them, and learn to 
read them in free schools which are better than the private schools 
of the rich. Colleges are endowed so that the poor can have the 
highest education. Public libraries and galleries of art are open to 
all. The poor can ride as fast in railroad cars as the rich, can have 
their daily papers, can enjoy music and home comforts such as only 
kings and princes enjoyed a few hundred years ago. Much is 
yet to be done in carrying out the spirit of the Gospel ; but it is well 
to see what wonders have already been accomplished. 



Library. — In " Quo Vadis," especially, and in Farrar's " Dark- 
ness to Dawn," we see the change the Gospel has wrought for the 
poor. 

7. A Reed Shaken with the Wind. An Arab told a friend of 
mine that "the reed shaken with the wind " was the musical reed 
pipe made to vibrate with the wind blown into it. " Did you go out 
to hear a musician discourse sweet sounds ? '' 



XI: 10-19 MATTHEW 217 



A.Do 38. 

Summer. 

SECOND YEAR. 

DISCOURSE 

UPON 

DELEGATION 

OF JOHN'S 

DISCIPLES. 



10. For this is //(?, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my 
messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before 
thee. 

11. Verily I say unto you, Among them that are bom of 
women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist : 
notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is 
greater than he. 

12. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the 
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. 

13. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. 

14. And if ye wUl receive z/, this is Elias, which was for to come. 

15. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. 

16. T[ But whereunto shall I hken this generation ? It is like unto children sitting 
in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, 

17. And saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced ; we have 
mourned unto, and ye have not lamented. 

18. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say. He hath a devil, 

19. The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man glut- 
tonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified 
of her children. 

12. Violent Take it by Force. — "This passage recalls the old 
Greek proverb quoted by Plato against the Sophists who had cor- 
rupted the Athenian youth by promising the easy attainment of 
wisdom. Good things are hard." — Af. R. Vmcent. 



Library. — Dante's " Paradise," XX., 94-99. 



16-19. Jesus "pictured a group of little children playing at make- 
believe marriages and funerals. First they acted a marriage proces- 
sion ; some of them piping on instruments of music, while the rest 
were expected to leap and dance. In a perverse mood, however, 
these refused to respond, but stood still and looked discontented. 
So the little pipers changed their game, and proposed a funeral. 
They began to imitate the loud wailing of Eastern mourners. But 
again they were thwarted, for their companions refused to chime in 
with the mournful cry and to beat their breasts." 

— Donald Fraser, Metaphors in Gospels. 

Most Christian men must live in the world, and the problem of 
the great majority of them is how to live righteously in a wicked 
world, how to be like a ship in the ocean without letting the ocean 
into the ship, to be like the flower in the coal mine, perfectly white 
amid the blackness. 



218 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : 20-22 



20. TI Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were 
done, because they repented not : 

21. Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida ! for if the mighty works, 
which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have 
repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 

22. But I say unto you. It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of 
judgment, than for you. 

Library. — Finding fault with whatever others do to make the 
world better, is illustrated by the touching story of the "Sister's 
Dream of Heaven," lately republished as a tract by William Knowles, 
New York. It is an effective illustration of one who has chosen evil, 
and still retains the love of evil even among the songs of the blest 
and against the most loving invitations of the glorified Redeemer. 
" I will not join in the dance, for I know not the measure ; I will not 
join in the song, for I know not the tune." 



Library. — (Verse 17) "We have piped unto you, etc." Seeley's 
booklet, " Children and the Bible," puts these into rhyme. 



21. Woe unto Thee. — Not an anathema, but a warning. Men 
ring the fire-bell, not to burn people, but to warn them to escape 
the fire. 

An unbeliever once said that he could not understand how the 
loving and good Christ could utter his " Woes unto 
^^ ^ ^ you." A minister of great power spoke the words in 
such a tender manner, so overflowing with loving kind- 
ness, that the unbeliever could understand how love could speak the 
" Woe." 



The Woe unto You of Love.— The intensity of love compels 
us to hate evil as that which destroys the works of love. He whose 
soul does not flame and burn like a volcano at those things which 
are ruining men does not know the full meaning of love to man. 
An English writer said he had found boys enough who loved God ; 
he wanted to find one who hated the devil. It was Christ, the very 
fountain and example of love, who denounced the hypocrisies of the 
Pharisee and pronounced woes on the heads of evil-doers ; but they 
were woes from the very heart of love. 



XI : 23-26 MATTHEW 219 



23. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, 
shalt be brought down to bell : for if the mighty works, which 
have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would 
have remained until this day. 

24. But I say unto you. That it shall be more tolerable for 
the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee. 

25. TI At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, 
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid 

these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes. 

26. Even so, Father ; for so it seemed good in thy sight. 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 

THIRD TEAR. 

RETURN 

OF THE 
SEVENTY. 



23. If THE Mighty Works which have been Done in Thee. — 
It was like one starving when food was close at hand ; like one 
drowning when the lifeboat was at his side. 



Vices in the Soil for Virtues.— The spring sunshine, the 
warm rains, the fertile soil, not only produce an abundance of flowers 
and fruits, but also make weeds, and brambles, and poison berries to 
thrive. It is in fertile fields, not in the desert, that weeds grow the 
rankest. Civilization and prosperity are the soil for sins as well as 
for virtues. But he is a poor judge who measures the value of a 
field merely by the weeds. 

Seeing the Dangers. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, in " One Hun- 
dred Days in Europe," thus expresses his feelings about the dangers 
of the voyage : " No man can find himself over the abysses, the floor 
of which is paved with wrecks, and white with the bones of the 
shrieking myriads of human beings whom the waves 
have swallowed up, without some thought of the dread Meaning 
possibilities hanging over his fate. There is only one Lifeboats, 
way to get rid of them ; that which an old sea-captain 
mentioned to me, namely, to keep one's self under opiates until he 
wakes up in the harbor where he is bound. I did not take this as 
serious advice, but the meaning is that one who has all his senses 
about him cannot help being anxious." It is equally true that on 
the voyage of life he who has his senses must be thoughtful about 
the dangers of the voyage, and only the opiates of folly, and 
pleasure, and worldliness can keep him from it. 



Library.— See G. Stanley Hall's book, " A Study of Fear." 



220 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : 2/, 28 



27, All things are delivered unto me of my Father : and no man knoweth the Son, 
but the Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to 
whomsoever the Son will reveal hi77t. 

28, \ Come unto me, all jk^ that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest. 

Hid these Things from the Wise and Prudent. — This state- 
ment does not mean that wisdom and intellect are not good things, 
nor that the wise and prudent are debarred from understanding the 
gospel, but that religious truth is not acquired by worldly wisdom or 
mental education. The intellect alone cannot solve 
^ . J these questions. - A strange confirmation is given in 
Erolution. Kidd's " Social Evolution," p. 236 : " It has to be con- 
fessed that in England, during the nineteenth century, the 
educated classes, in almost all the great political changes that have 
been effected, have taken the side of the party afterwards admitted to 
have been in the wrong. They have invariably opposed at the time the 

measures they have subsequently come to defend and justify 

The motive force behind the long list of progressive measures 
.... has come almost exclusively from the middle and lower 
classes, who have in turn acted, not under the stimulus of intellectual 
motives, but under the influence of their altruistic feelings." 



27. To Whomsoever the Son will reveal Him (the Father). — 
" Physical science declares that there is ' an intangible 

If ^^^ invisible ether, which cannot be touched, or tasted, or 
Symbol . ' 

of God. contamed, or measured, or weighed, but yet is every- 
where, and in one form or another does all the physical 
work of the universe.' Light is one kind of motion in this ether. 
Yet ' it is invisible, inconceivable, unknown to us, unless matter 
to make it visible be in its path.' " — Lewis Wright. 

Jesus Christ is like this matter, embodied in human form, that 
reveals to us the invisible otherwise inconceivable Father in heaven. 



28. Labor and are Heavy Laden. — " KoTrfwircf kcCi •Kz^opnaiiEvoi 
— The first as active, the second a passive participle, expressing the 
active and passive sides of human misery." 

— Prof. Vincent's Word-Studies. 

I Will Give You Rest. — avairavaa. I will make to cease, I will 



XI : 28 MATTHEW 221 



A.D 29. 

A utumn. 

THIRD YEAR. 

THE 

INVITATION. 

, ►J. 



give relief, or refreshiytg, as of a drooping plant 
when the rains come. 

"There are two Greek words alike translated 
'rest' in the New Testament, one of which 
{avd'KavGLq) means a ' let up ' of toil, and the other, 
{Kara-Kavciq), a ' let down ' from toil. The word here 
translated ' rest ' signifies a let up of labor or an 
uplift of it, in order to its better prosecution. The 
other word indicates a let down or cessation of labor (as Heb. iv, 
I, 3, 5). Here, therefore, the idea would seem to be of a 
rest that is a refreshing or of a relief in labor, rather '^^^ Methods 
than of a rest that is a relief from labor. Indeed, the ^ Kest!"^ 
Douay version of the Bible, in use by Roman Catholics, 
better translates this invitation, ' Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are burdened, and I will refresh you,' and the English Church 
Prayer-book also gives ' refresh ' for * rest.' .... Love gives rest 
in work, as better that ro.'sXfroin work 

" The invitation is not to lazy swinging in a spiritual hammock or 
to tired lounging in a spiritual easy-chair, it is to a vigorous tugging 
under a spiritual yoke-beam, and there is all the difference in the 
world between these two. Over the very entrance to this house of re- 
freshing there is inscribed a warning like that which we see at the 
doorway of many a busy shop or factory, * No Admittance except for 
Workmen.' 

"When Jesus found a helpless cripple by the Pool of Bethesda 
bowed down under the weight of his burden of disease he called him 
to rest by saying, * Arise, take up thy bed and walk,' — as if he would 
say, 'You have worked long enough doing nothing^ 
now find refreshing in pleasurable labor. Up and carry Best Illus- 
the bed on which you have been carried all these years.' ^^*f jj *j ® 
And that was better for that poor cripple than a whole Bethesda. 
summer of hammock-swinging in the mountains or by the 
seashore would have been. This act of healing was performed on 
the Sabbath day, and the Jews complained of Jesus because he told 
the man to rest working instead of to rest doing nothing. But Jesus 
said that his Father works on while resting, and that the truest pat- 
tern of rest, for God or for man, is in fitting and timely work." 

— Sunday-School Times. 



222 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : 28 

" Rest is not quitting 
The busy career ; 
Rest is the fitting 

Of self to one's sphere. 

" 'Tis the brook's motion, — 
Clear without strife. 
Fleeting to ocean 
After this life. 

" 'Tis loving and serving 
The highest and best ; 
'Tis onward, unswerving, — 
And this is true rest." — Goethe. 



Rest is in using the laws amid which we live, and not in resisting 
them. The ship rests not when rotting at the dock, but when it 
moves swiftly according to the laws of the sea and the wind. 



" Like the bard who freely sings 
In strictest bonds of rhyme and rule. 
And finds in them not bonds, but wings." 

— Coventry Patmore. 

Two Pictures of Rest. — " Two painters each painted a picture 
to illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a 
still, lone lake among the far-off mountains. The second threw on 
his canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending 
over the foam ; at the fork of a branch almost wet with the cataract's 
spray a robin sat on his nest. The first was only Stagnatio7t ; the 
last was Rest. For in Rest there are always two elements — tranquil- 
ity and energy, silence and turbulence." — The C. E. News. 



Free activity is rest and peace, as the artist paints, as the athlete 
plays, as the bird sings. 

Library.— Mrs. Osgood's poem, "Labor is Rest." 



A 



The Rest of Protection. — " A lady was awakened one morn- 
ing by a strange noise of pecking at the window; and when she got 



XI : 28 MATTHEW 223 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 
THIRD YEAE, 

THE 
INVITATION. 



up, she saw a butterfly flying backwards and for- 
wards inside the window, in a great fright, because 
outside there was a sparrow pecking the glass, 
wanting to reach the butterfly. The butterfly did 
not see the glass ; but it saw the sparrow, and evi- 
dently expected every moment to be caught. 
Neither did the sparrow see the glass, though it 
saw the butterfly, and made sure of catching it. 
Yet all the w^hile, the butterfly, because of that thin, invisible sheet 
of glass, was actually as safe as if it had been ten miles away from 
the sparrow." — James Inglis. 

Under the Shadow of His Wings.— One of the ancient sym- 
bols of God is a conventional bird with wings expanded, as a pro- 
tection for those " under the shadow of his wings," as the young 
birds are protected by the wings of the mother bird. Around a beau- 
tiful silver bowl, from Praeneste in Southern Italy (now ^ , ^ 
Tr. 1 A 11 • N • J • c ' Bowl of 

m the Kircher Collection), is engraved a series of pict- Pr^neste. 

ures. First, a king in his chariot leaving his castle. 
Next the king shooting a deer upon a hill, in a cave of which is 
sheltered a savage. Then the king flaying the deer hung up in a 
tree, and the savage behind him about to fling a stone at him. 
Then above is the last picture repeated in smaller compass, but be- 
tween the stone and the king is the common bird-like symbol of 
God. The king is protected by the divine wings. 

REST in the love OF GOD. 

" When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean. 
And billows wild contend with angry roar, 
'Tis said, far down, beneath the wild commotion. 
That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. 

Far, far beneath, the noise of tempests dieth. 

And silver waves chime ever peacefully. 
And no rude storm, how fierce so e'er it flieth, 

Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea. 

So to the heart that knows Thy love, O Purest ! 

There is a temple, sacred evermore, 
And all the babble of life's angry voices 

Dies in hushed stillness at its peaceful door. 



224: > SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : 29, 30 

29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : 
and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 

30. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. 

Far, far away, the roar of passion dieth, 

And loving thoughts rise calm and peacefully. 

And no rude storm, how fierce so e'er it fiieth, 
Disturbs the soul that dwells, O Lord, in Thee." 

— Harriet Beecher Stowe^ 

" Oh heart distressed, 

Bowed down, oppressed, 
Fear not God's help will come too late ! 

The treasuries at His command 

Are full and rich ; great armies stand 
To do His word ; He can create 

A paradise from desert land ; 
The chafing force of wind and sea 
He can subdue to His decree ; 

All earth's deep-hid resource and might 

Lie in His grasp, to crown or smite : 
This royal and majestic power 
Can, at His will—in one brief hour — 

Be summoned forth to help and bless 

One trembling soul in heaviness, 
One of His own." — Helen F. Morris. 



I WILL GIVE. 

" I knelt before Thy gracious throne 

And asked for peace with suppliant knee. 
And peace was given ; not peace alone. 
But love, and joy y and ecstacy" — Wordsworth. 



For a cap and bells our lives we pay ; 

Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking ; 
'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 

'Tis only God may be had for the asking." —Lowell. 



29, 30. Take my Yoke upon you . . my Yoke is Easy. — "A yoke 
means three thing, (i) It is a mark of obedience and submission. 



XI : 29, 30 MATTHEW 225 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 
THIRD TEAK. 

THE 
INVITATION. 



The figure is taken from oxen, who submissively "^ •t 

yield to the yoke of their master. It is allied also 
to ' our word subjiigatzon, which comes etymolo- 
gically from two Latin words, sub and jiigum, and 
signifies going under the yoke. It refers to a war 
custom among the ancients of putting two spears 
together with the points touching in the air, the 
staves spread beneath, and then forcing a con- 
quered army, disarmed, to pass in a file under it ; thus they were 
subjugated' " — C. S. Robinso7i. 

Henceforth they belong to the new kingdom, and submit to its 

laws and requirements. The contrast was almost incon- 

• t-i V t , r , T^ The Yoke, 

ceivable between the yoke of the Roman government 

and that of Christ's kingdom. 



Christ's Yoke and the Yoke of Sin.— No one can escape from 
bearing a yoke of some kind. The yoke men had been bearing was 
chiefly the yoke of Satan. They were serving with him and for 
him. And his yoke is always galling. The yoke of pride, ambition, 
selfishness, of fashion, of worldliness, of sin and remorse, of self- 
indulgence, of sensuality, of covetousness, is always a heavy, bitter, 
galling yoke, an Egyptian bondage. It is a yoke with Satan, a go- 
ing in his company, and receiving his reward. It costs something 
to be a Christian ; it costs much more to be a sinner. Some com- 
plained of the missionaries in Harpoot, because they required each 
convert, on joining the church, to promise to give away one-tenth of 
his income ; but they replied that this was but a small part of what 
their heathenism used to cost them. Even in Massachusetts five 
times as much money is spent for strong drink as for schools or 
churches. It may cost something to go to church. What worldly 
pleasure or haunt of sin serves its votaries so cheaply } 



And ye Shall find Rest. — There are two kinds of rest. One 
is given ; the other is found. One is from what Christ imparts ; 
the other is within and comes from a meek and lowly heart, that takes 
lessons of Jesus. It is the rest of victory of a holy trust, of com- 
munion with God. It is inwrought rest through a change in the 
spirit itself. Just as there are two kinds of happiness, two kinds of 
knowledge, two kinds of warmth. 



226. SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XI : 30 

30. For My Yoke is Easy. — XpvcTog, fitted for use, serviceable , 
hence easy, for only an easy, well-fitting yoke is serviceable. 



Comparisons. — Augustine beautifully compares it to the plumage 
of a bird's wings, seeming very heavy, but, after all, the exact thing 
by which the creature soars the highest toward heaven. 

It is like the tail of a kite, which keeps it steady, or the string by 
which it rises. 

Like the weight of an engine, without which it could not pull the 
train. ^_^ 

Yoked Together. — " In Northern Italy I have noticed when two 
bullocks are yoked together, and are of one mind, the yoke is always 
easy to them both. You will see them look so lovingly at each 
other with those large, lustrous, brown eyes of theirs, and with a look 
they read each other's minds, so that when one wants to lie down, 
down they go, or when one wishes to go forward, forward they go, 
keeping step." — Spurgeon. 

And my Burden is Light.—" Let me give you a very simple 
illustration. There is a myth about the birds, that when they were 
first created they had no wings : and the story is, that God made 
the wings, put them down before the birds, and said, ' Now, come 
and take the burdens up and bear them.' The birds had beautiful 
plumage and voices ; they could sing and shine, but they could not 

soar; but they took up their wings with their beaks and 
''*f^w"*^*" laid them upon their shoulders, and at first they seemed 

to be a heavy load, and rather difficult to bear. But 
as they cheerfully and patiently bore them, and folded them over 
their hearts, lo ! the wings grew fast, and that which they once 
bore, now bore them. The burdens became pinions, and the weights 
became wings. We are the wingless birds, and our duties are the 
pinions ; and when at first we assume them, they seem loads ; but 
if we cheerfully bear them, going after Jesus, the burdens change 
to pinions, and we, who once thought we were nothing but servants 
bearing loads, find that we are sons and heirs of God, free to mount 
up with wings as eagles, running without being weary, walking 
without being faint," — Arthur T. Pzerson. 

Library. — Illustrations of this are found (i) in the story of St. 
Christopher, who bore the Christ child across the river, and the 



XI: 30 



MATTHEW 



227 



burden made him cross more easily than when 
alone. (2) A similar story from classic mythology 
is beautifully told by Hawthorne, in his " Wonder 
Book." 

" Peace beginning to be 
Deep as the sleep of the sea. 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 

THIRD TEAK. 

THE 
INVITATION. 



To rest as the wild waters rest. 

With the colors of heaven on their breast. 

Love which is sunlight of peace, 

Age by age to increase 



Peace on earth and good will ; 
Souls that are gentle and still, 
Hear the first music of this 
Far-off infinite bliss." 



228 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



XII 



CHAPTER XII. 



A.U. 28. 

Early 

Sum7>ier. 

CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 
INCREASING 
OPPOSITION. 

THE TRUE 
SABBATH. 



1. At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the 
corn ; and his disciples were a hungered, and began to pluck 
the ears of com, and to eat. 

2. But when the Pharisees saw //, they said unto him, 
Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the 
sabbath day. 

3. But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David 
did, when he was a hungered, and they that were with him ; 

4. How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was 
not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the 
priests > 

5. Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the 
temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless ? 

6. But I say unto you. That in this place is one greater than the temple. 

7. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye 
would not have condemned the guiltless. 

8. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. 



In this chapter Matthew has massed together the acts of opposi- 
tion to Christ, as he previously had done with his teachings in chaps, 
5-7, his miracles in chaps. 8 and 9, and his instructions in chap. 10. 
We note how the opposition in every case spread the truth, or set 
it in clearer light. The Pharisees were like the farmer 
th^Tr Tl^s ^^° hated Canada thistles so heartily that he cut down 
the plants, scattered them everywhere, and stamped 
them in the ground. His opposition multiplied the thistles he 
tried to destroy. 



Burning Tyndale's Testaments.—" The burning of Tyndale's 
Testaments at the cross of St. Paul's, by order of the Bishop of 
London, gave the exiled translator the means of carrying on his 
work with greater vigor ; and next to the faithful labors of its own 
adherents, the gospel has been most indebted for its progress to the 
blind antagonism of its adversaries. ' Truth, like a torch, the more 
it's shook, the more it shines.' " — Wm. M. Taylor, 



2. When the Pharisees saw it. — There can scarcely be any 
habit more injurious to the character than that of looking for faults 



XII: 9-13 MATTHEW 229 



A.I>. 28. 

Early 

Summer. 

GALILEE. 

SECOND TEAE. 

rS-CEZAStXG 

OPPOSITION". 

THE TRUE 
SAEBATH. 



9. And when he was departed thence, he went into their 
synagogue : 

10. % And, behold, there was a man which had his hand 
withered. And they asked him, saying. Is it lawful to heal on 
the sabbath days ? that they might accuse him. 

11. And he said unto them. What man shall there be among 
you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the 
sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out ? * 

12. How much then is a man better than a sheep ? Wherefore it is lawful to do 
well on the sabbath days. 

13. Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it 
forth ; and it was restored whole, like as the other. 

in others, putting the worst possible construction on what they say 
and do, and shutting the eyes to the good in them. 



Evil of Fault-Finding. — " A young lady once expressed to 
Hogarth, the great satirist, a wish to learn to draw caricatures. 
' Alas ! ' said he, ' it is not a faculty to be envied. Take my advice, 
and never draw caricature. By the long practice of it I have lost 
the enjoyment of beauty; I never see a face but distorted, and have 
never the satisfaction to behold the human face divine.'" 

— T. Jackso7i, B.A. 

Not Lawful to do Upon the Sabbath. — The Pharisees strained 
out a gnat, but swallowed a camel. They washed the outside of the 
cup and platter, while the inside was all uncleanness. 

Jewish Sabbath Prohibitioxs.— For instance, reaping and 
threshing were forbidden, hence it was asserted that plucking grain 
was wrong because it was a kind of reaping, and rubbing off the 
husks was a sin because it was a kind of threshijig. 

" The reader will find an immense number of ridiculous ways of 
breaking the Sabbath in Edersheim's ' Life of Christ,' appendix, xvii. 
The following bear on this sin of ' rubbing with their hands ' : ' If a 
woman were to roll wheat to take away the husks, she would be 
guilty of sifting with a sieve. If she were rubbing the ends of the 
stalks, she would be guilty of threshing. If she were cleaning what 
adheres to the side of a stalk, she would be guilty of sifting. If she 
were bruising the stalk, she would be guilty of grinding. If she were 
throwing it up in her hands, she would be guilty of winnowing it 
(Vol. IL, p. ySs)-"— Sadler. 



230 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 14-16 

14. T[ Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they 
might destroy him, 

15. But when Jesus knew z'/, he withdrew himself from thence : and gjeat multi- 
tudes followed him, and he healed them ail ; 

16. And charged them that they should not make him known : 

" It was seriously argued that to walk upon the grass with nailed 
shoes was a violation of the Sabbath, because it was a kind of thresh- 
ing, and to catch a flea upon one's person v/as a violation, because it 
was a kind of hunting ; and it was gravely debated whether one 
might eat a fresh egg on the first day of the week, since, in the order 
of nature, it had probably been prepared by the hen on the seventh." 

" He that hath toothache," they said, " let him not take vinegar, 
to spit it out again ; but he is allowed to take it, if he swallow it 
down.' ' — L ight foot's Ex ere it a tioiis, 

"Abarbanel relates that, when in 1492, the Jews were expelled 
from Spain, and were forbidden to enter the city of Fez lest they 
should cause a famine, they lived on grass; yet even in this state 
' religiously avoided the violation of their Sabbath by plucking the 
grass with their hands! To avoid this they took the much more 
laborious methods of grovelling on their knees, and cropping it with 
their teeth." — Cambridge Bible for Schools. 

" To break the Sabbath, rather than suffer hunger for a few hours, 
was guilt worthy of stoning. Was it not their boast that Jews were 
known over the world by their readiness to die rather than break the 
holy day? Every one had stories of grand fidelity to it. The 
Jewish sailor had refused, even v/hen threatened with death, to 
touch the helm a moment after the san had set on Friday, though a 
storm was raging; and had not thousands let themselves be 
butchered rather than touch a weapon in self-defence on the Sab- 
bath ? " — Geikie. 

" A tragic illustration of Jewish superstition came under my notice, 
a few years ago, in Jerusalem. A fire broke out, on the Sabbath, in 
a house in the Jewish quarter. No one would make the slightest 
effort to extinguish it. It being unlawful among them to kindle a 
fire on that day, they interpret this prohibition to imply that fire 
may not be touched ; and thus to save themselves from ceremonial 
pollution, as they supposed, there was not one who would make the 
slightest effort to rescue the inmates. Three beautiful young girls 



XII; 17-19 MATTHEW 231 



A.U. 28. 

Summer. 
GALILEE. 

SECOND YEAR. 
CHRIST'S 

WORK. 



17. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the 
prophet, saying, 

18. Behold my servant, whom I have chosen ; my beloved, 
in whom my soul is well pleased : I will put my Spirit upon 
him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. 

19. He shall not strive, nor cry ; neither shall any man 
hear his voice in the streets. 

were burned to death, when a very little exertion might have saved 
them all. One of the women, on being afterwards reproached for 
this hideous tragedy, replied that it was a sacrifice acceptable to 
God, who would reward them for having allowed their dear ones to 
perish, rather than break his commandment." 

— Tristram, in Sunday-School Times. 

Barnacles. — The Pharisees' interpretations were like the bar- 
nacles on the bottom of a ship ; or like the dust and dirt of ages 
upon a painting by one of the old masters. We should remove the 
barnacles, but keep the ship ; cleanse away the dust, but retain the 
picture. 

Jewel and Dirt upon it. — Jesus would keep the jewel, but wash 
away the dirt which had accumulated upon it, and dimmed or 
destroyed its radiance. 

Plato's Comparison of the Soul to Glaucus. — Plato com- 
pares the soul of man, as it now is, to the marine Glaucus, who cast 
himself into the sea, and cruised along the shores with the whales. 
" His ancient nature cannot be easily perceived, because the ancient 
members of his body are partly broken off, and others worn away ; 
and besides this, other things are grown to him, such as shellfish, 
and seaweeds, and stones, so that he in every respect resembles a 
beast, rather than what he naturally was." Under the Jews, the 
divine Sabbath had become thus disfigured, its best parts broken 
away, and much that was evil and unworthy had overgrown it. 

The Jewel and the Case. — They were like the Roman soldier 
who, finding a bag full of jewels, threw away the jewels but kept the 
leather case. 

Brushing away Cobwebs. — Jesus brushed away the cobwebs, 
and the Pharisees thought that the ceiling was about to falL 



232 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII:20-3I 



20. A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he 
send forth judgment unto victory. 

21. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust. 

22. n[ Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb : 
and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. 

23. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the Son of Da^'id ? 

24. But when the Pharisees heard //, they said. This /e//ozv doth not cast out 
devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. 

25. And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them. Every kingdom divided 
against itself is brought to desolation ; and every city or house divided against itself 
shall not stand : 

26. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself ; how shall then his 
kingdom stand > 

27. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast i/iem 
out ? therefore they shall be your judges. 

28. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come 
unto you. 

29. Or else, how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, 
except he first bind the strong man ? and then he will spoil his house. 

30. He that is not with me is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me scat- 
tereth abroad. 

31. T[ Wherefore I say unto you. All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be 
forgiven unto men : but the blasphemy agaiiist the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven 
unto men. 

20. A Bruised Reed. . . A Smoking Flax. — A " dimly burning 
wick " in the Hebrew. " He himself, partaking the nature of our 
frail humanity, is both a lamp and a reed, humble, but not to 
be broken, and the light of the world. Compare the beautiful 
passage in Dante, where Cato directs Virgil to wash away the stains 
of the nether world from Dante's face, and to prepare him for the 
ascent of the Purgatorial mount by girding him with a rush, the 
emblem of humility " (Purgatorio, 1., 94-105, 133-137). 

— M. R. Vinceiit, i?i Word-Studies, 

31. Shall not be Forgiven Him. — A man may misuse his eyes, r^ 

and yet see ; but whosoever puts them out can never see again. One 

may misdirect his mariner's compass, and turn it aside from the 

north pole by a magnet or piece of iron, and it may re- 

^ cover and point right again ; but whosoever destroys the 

able Sin. compass itself has lost his guide at sea. So it is possible 

for us to sin and be forgiven : recovery through God's 

Spirit is not impossible. But if we so harden our hearts that they 

cannot feel the power of the Spirit, who alone can convert us, if the 



XII : 32, 33 MATTHEW 233 



32: And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, 
it shall be forgiven him : but whosoever speaketh against the 
Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, 
neither in the world to come. 

33. Either make the tree good, and his fruit good ; or else 
make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt : for the tree is 
known by his fruit. 

eyes of the soul are destroyed, then there is no hope. We are 
beyond the reach of the only power that can save us. 



A.». 28. 

Autumn. 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 

OPPOSITION 

OF THE 
PHARISEES. 



" Past Redemption Point.— On the bank of the Niagara River, ? 
where the rapids begin to swell and swirl most desperately prepara-X 
tory to their final plunge, is a sign board which bears a most startling 
legend, ' Past Redemption Point,' it reads. To read it, even while 
one feels the firm soil beneath his feet sends a shiver of horror 
through one's soul as he looks off upon the turbulent waters, and 
realizes the full significance of the sign. The one who gets into 
those boiling rapids, and passes that point, cannot retrace his way, 
cannot be rescued by friends." — London Sunday -School Chronicle. 

The Inchcape Rock. — The unpardonable sin from destroying 
the power within us which makes salvation possible, is illustrated by 
Southey's poem, " The Inchcape Rock." The " holy abbot of Aber- 
brothock " had placed a bell over this rock, in such a way that it 
was rung by the motion of the waves. 

" When the rock was hid by the tempest's swell, 
The mariners heard the warning bell." 

One day Ralph the Rover, in sport, " cut the warning bell from its 
float," and " sailed away, and scoured the seas for many a day." Re- 
turning, richly laden, he finds himself near the Scottish shore in a 
fog and the swell of a gale. 

" Canst hear, says one, the breakers' roar } 
For yonder methinks, should be the shore. 
Now, where we are I cannot tell. 
But I wish we could hear the Inchcape bell." 

But they hear no sound, and soon are wrecked upon the very rock 
from which they had destroyed the warning bell. 

Reference. — 33. " Make the tree good." See chapter vii : 16-18. 



234: SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 34-36 



34. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things ? for out of 
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 

35. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things ; 
and an evil man out of the evU treasure bringeth forth evil things. 

36. But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give 
account thereof in the day of judgment. 

Reference. — 34. " Out of the abundance of the heart." See " Poi- 
soning the Fountains," under chapter xiii : 24-30. 



35. Out of the Good Treasure of the Heart.— "One sum- 
mer day, a few years ago, strolhng for rest and pleasure near the 
mouth of the Columbia River, where there is a large rise and fall of 
the tide, I came, at low tide, upon a splendid spring of pure fresh 
water, clear as crystal, gushing up from between the rocks that, two 
hours before, had formed a part of the river's bed. 

The " Twice a day the soiled tide rises above that beauti- 

Fountaln ful fountain and covers it over ; but there it is, down 

beneath the deep under the salt tide, and when the tide has spent its 

* force, and gone back again to the ocean's depths, it 

sends out its pure waters fresh and clear as before. 

" So if the human heart be really a fountain of love to Christ, it 
will send out its streams of fresh, sweet waters, even into the midst 
of the salt tides of politics or business. And the man who carries 
such a fountain into the day's worry and struggle will come again at 
night, when the world's tide has spent its force, with clean hands, 
sweet spirit, and conscience void of offence toward God and man," 

— The Watchword. 

Bringeth Forth. — zK^dlla, throws out of its abundance as a full 
reservoir forces the water out of the pipes or fountains below. 



36. Every Idle Word. — Idle, hpyhv, from d not, and tpyov, work, 
a word that does not do its work, useless. 



Argon. — " Much interest attaches to the recent discovery of the 
third and hitherto unsuspected component of the air, — the gas 
called argon, from the Greek ' a,' not, and ' ergon,' work. Four years 
(i 891-2) ago Lord Raleigh perceived that nitrogen taken from 
the air is heavier than the same gas chemically obtained. He and 



XII : 37-39 MATTHEW 235 



37. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy 
words thou shalt be condemned . 

38. '[] Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees an- 
swered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. 

39. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adul- 
terous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no sign 
be -given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas : 



A.D. 28. 

A iitu7)in. 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 

THE SIGN 
OF JONAH. 



•i- 



his colleague. Prof. Ramsay, suspected the presence with the atmos- 
pheric nitrogen of some other gas, which has now at length been 
found, having been discovered almost simultaneously by each of 
these eminent scientists. The name 'argon' signifies idle, slothful, 
and has been given to the new gas on account of its unexampled 
inertness. Up to this time it has not been found possible to make 
it enter into combination with any other element (we say 'any other 
element,' though it is not yet certain that argon is an element). A 
new significance is given to that verse in the New Testament (Matt. 
xii. 36) in which the word 'argon ' occurs. 'Every idle (argon) word 
that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of 
judgment.' " — Prof. Amos R. Wells. 

Reference. See on xxv. 28. The man of one talent; "A Les- 
son in Chemistry." 

Gathering Scattered Thistle-seeds. — " The story is told of a 
woman who freely used her tongue to the scandal of others and 
made confession to the priest of what she had done. He gave her a 
ripe thistle-top and told her to go out in various directions and scat- 
ter the seeds one by one. Wondering at the penance she obeyed 
and then returned and told her confessor. To her amazement he 
bade her go back and gather the scattered seeds, and when she ob- 
jected that it would be impossible, he replied that it would be still 
more difficult to gather up and destroy all evil reports which she 
had circulated about others. Any thoughtless, careless person can 
scatter a handful of thistle-seeds before the wind in a moment, but 
the strongest and wisest man cannot gather them again." 



I have known one word hang starlike 
O'er a dreary waste of years. 

And it only shone the brighter, 

Looked at through the mist of tears ; 



236 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 4O-42 



40. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly ; so shall the 
Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 

41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall con- 
demn it : because they repented at the preaching of Jonas ; and, behold, a greater 
than Jonas is here, 

42. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and 
shall condemn it ; for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wis- 
dom of Solomon ; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. 

While a weary wanderer gathered 
Hope and heart on life's dark way, 

By its faithful promise, shining 
Clearer day'by day. 

" I have known a spirit, calmer 

Than the calmest lake, and clear 
As the heavens that gazed upon it, 

With no wave of hope or fear ; 
But a storm had swept across it, 

And its deepest depths were stirred, 
(Never, never more to slumber,) 

Only by a word." — Adelaide Proctor. 



Library. — 37. "Justified condemned." See Trench "On 

the Study of Words." 

Words as a Test of the Man. — The smallest things often 
show what a person is. " Straws show which way the wind blows." 
Character is often shown in the smallest acts; as in handwriting or 
walking. "The difference is," says Whately, "that in all other 
ordinary actions the observation of manner is 7nome7itary ; whereas, 
in writing, there is a permanent record oi it, which may be examined 
at leisure." Cuvier could reconstruct a whole animal from a single 
bone. 

Library. — Conan Doyle's "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" 
gives a great many instances. 

40. Three Days and Three Nights. — " The Oriental way of 
counting days is not our way, yet the Bible conforms to the Orien- 
tal way. When we speak of 'a day,' we ordinarily mean a day and a 



XII: 43-45 MATTHEW 237 



A.D. 28. 

Autumn. 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 

THE EMPTY 
SOUL. 



43. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walk- 
eth through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 

44. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence 
I came out ; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, 
and gfamished. 

45. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other 
spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell 

there : and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also 
unto this wicked generation. 

night. When the Oriental speaks of a day he says 'a day and a 
night '; that is his phrase for * a day.' A part of a day counts for 
* a day 'or for 'a day and a night,' whether it includes any of the 
night or not. Thus, an hour before a new day and an hour after a 
new day, together with the intervening day, counts as three days and 
three nights, because it includes parts of three days or of three of 
those days which are called ' a day and a night.' This was in accord- 
ance with ancient Jewish modes of speech current in the days of 
Christ in Palestine. Lightfoot shows thalj.it was said in the Talmud 
that ' Rabbi Akiba fixed a day for an Ojiah and a night for an Onah, 
but the tradition is that Rabbi Eliezer Ben Azariah said, ' A day and 
a night make an Onah, and a part of an Onah is as the whole.' And 
again, ' Rabbi Ishmael computeth a part of the Onah for the whole.' 
It is in Matthew's Gospel, written for the Jews, that the phrase 
occurs, ' Three days and three nights,' as based on an ancient Jew- 
ish figure. Mark, who writes for the Romans, says ' three days.' " 

— Sunday- School Tz7nes. 
" This ancient usage as to time-reckoning still prevails in Pales- 
tine. Dr. Robinson, the distinguished author of * Biblical Re- 
searches,' on going to the Holy Land found that ' five days ' of 
quarantine really meant ' only three whole days and a small portion 
of two others.' " 

Examples are found, I. Sam. xxx., the story of the Egyptians. The 
Book of Esther, iv. 16, compared with 18. 



43-45. Emptying by Filling. — "'We must empty by filling,' 
said a divinely enlightened woman, Ellice Hopkins ; and a wise man 
has said, ' Nothing is ever displaced until it is replaced.' In these 
two utterances lies the secret (if it be a secret) of all reform. Here, 
as elsewhere, nature (which abhors a vacuum) teaches. We cannot 



238 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XII : 46-5 O 

46 Tf WhUe he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood 
without, desiring to speak with him. 

47. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, 
desiring to speak with thee. 

48. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother ? and 
wno are my brethren ? 

49. And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said. Behold, my 
mother and my brethren ! 

50. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is 
my brother, and sister, and mother. 

pump the darkness out of a room ; we must empty it by filling it 
with light. One tallow-dip will do more to exclude darkness than a 
thousand steam-pumps. The only way to shut out disease is to fill 
the veins with health. In morals we must banish the degrading by 
the elevating — not by prohibition but by substitution. We must 
crowd out the saloon by the reading-room, the lecture, the boys' 
guild, and the young men's club, with its light and pleasant rooms, 
its games, and its cheerful welcome. 

"The popular superstition which credits every deserted house 
with being haunted and peoples it with bad spirits has a germ of 
truth. If the demon be excluded and the soul be swept and gar- 
nished, yet, if it be empty, the demon will return with seven other 
spirits more wicked than himself. The Holy Spirit, by entering the 
soul, empties it of evil spirits ; and, by dwelling in the soul, filling it 
to the utmost, he maintains the exclusion of the bad.'' 

—H.L. Wayland,D.D. 



XIII: 1-3 



MATTHEW 



239 



CHAPTER XIII. 



1. The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the 
sea side. 

2. And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, 
so that he went into a ship, and sat ; and the whole multitude 
stood on the shore. 

3. And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, 
Behold, a sower went forth to sow ; 



I. Sat by the Seaside. 



A.I>. 28. 

Autumn. 

BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
DEVELOPMENT. 

PARABLE 
OF SOWER. 



O Galilee, sweet Galilee, 

Where Jesus loved so much to be 
O Galilee, blue Galilee, 

Come sing thy song again to me." 



-Robert Morrzss, LL.D. 



3. Spake unto Them in Parables, See Preface. 



Library. — Mrs. Gatty's " Parables from Nature," Krummacher's 
Parables," Gotthold's " Emblems." 



Longfellow wrote of Agassiz, the great investigator of Nature 

" Here is a story book 
Thy Father hath written for thee, — 
Come wander with me, she said, 
Into regions yet untrod, 
And read what is still unread 
In the manuscripts of God." 



A Parable is a story picture of familiar things, which illustrates, 
illumines, and impresses some great truth. This world, with all its 
forces and powers, seems made purposely to express in visible forms, 
as in an incarnation, the invisible facts of the spiritual world. Earth- 
ly things are made after the pattern of the heavenly. 



240 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 4 

4. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and 
devoured them up : 

" What if earth 
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
Each to the other Hke, more than on earth is thought." 

— Milton. 

3. A Sower went Forth to Sow. — Note the great superabun- 
dance of seed which God sows in the natural world, as typical of the 
good seed he sows in the spiritual world. One grain of corn in a 
few years could cover the whole earth with growing corn. There 
are thousands of times as many seeds as can find room to grow. 



Seeds in a Cupful of Mud.— Darwin took a cupful of mud from 
the bottom of a pond, and, pulling out each plant that came up, he 
found that there had been nearly five hundred seeds in that small 
amount of soil. So the human heart is full of seeds of every kind, 
and what a man shall be depends on which ones he permits to grow. 
A Christian is a garden with some weeds. A sinner is waste land 
with some good plants, and more that might become good. 



The Good Seed. — " There is a fundamental difference between 
the seed of the parable and ethics." Ethics is no more religion than 
geometry is astronomy. 

" The true Christian receives from the Prince of Life much more 
than good morals — nothing less than the gift of life in distinction 
from death. Seneca, the wealthy and cultivated Roman, 
wrote a book of moral maxims which is admired for its ^* Life*"^ 
excellence to this day ; but of the effects of his teaching 
he gave the world two instructive illustrations : first in his favorite 
pupil Nero, and secondly in himself, when, notwithstanding all his 
ethics, he shocked even Rome by rising in the Senate to justify the 
revolting murder by Nero of his own mother." 

— Dr. Win. H. Thomson, iii the Parables in Their Home. 



4. Some Seed fell by the Wayside. — Every road is an illustra- 
tion of the impossibility of a crop on a traveled way. Thoughts and 
feelings and choices have a similar effect on the mind, and make it 



XIII : 5, 6 MATTHEW 241 



5. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much 
earth : and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no 
deepness of earth : 

6. And when the sun was up, they were scorched ; and be- 
cause they had no root, they withered away. 

difficult, when these are wrong, for a truth to gain 
a lasting hold. When you are very deeply inter- 
ested in any one thing, other matters are passed 
lightly over, and make little impression. 



A.B. 28. 

Autumn. 

BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 
THE TEAB OP 

DE^TELOPilENT. 

PARABLE 
OF SOWER. 



Trinity Chimes and City Noise.—" The noises of the world 
drown the voice of God. While on Broadway, New York, I have 
heard many times the chimes of Trinity Church steeple pour out 
their music at noonday, but I have noticed that very few of the 
busy crowds on the streets followed the music. There are too many 
sounds disputing with the chimes the possession of the ear. I tried 
to follow the sacred song that was pealing through the air, but note 
after note was lost in the noise and rattle of the wheels of com- 
merce." — Rev. David Gregg, D.D., in Our Best Moods. 



Inventions Before their Time.— Many good plans and inven- 
tions have failed because the minds and circumstances of the people 
were not prepared to receive them. The art of printing w^as of 
small account till some cheap method of making paper was invented. 
Powder was of little value till the iron and steel industry was well 
advanced. The soil must be ready before an invention or idea can be 
successful. 

The Fowls came and Devoured them up.—" Birds in Syria, 
and especially about the Lake of Tiberias, are extraordinarily numer- 
ous. As Syria is the winter feeding-ground of many migratory birds 
from Northern Europe and Asia, this marsh (of the Huleh Lake) is 
then filled with a greater variety and multitude of waterfowl than I 
ever seen elsewhere. At early dawn they begin their calls again, 
and then piake long lines of flight for the nearest wheat-fields." 

—Prof. W. H. Thomson, M.D. 

5, 6. Some Fell on Stony Places, rocks with a shallow covering 
of earth. Withered Away. 



24:2 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 7 



7. And some fell among thorns ; axid the thorns sprung up, and choked them : 

Illustrations, (i) The morning cloud and early dew. (2) The 
radiance of the setting sun on the clouds and on the sea. (3) A 
stove heated from without, and soon cooling, compared with one 
holding a fire of its own. 

PowDER-MiLL Piety. — Said a little girl, who had just been read- 
ing the newspaper account of an explosion, " Ma, don't you think that 
people who work in powder-mills ought to be good ? " There was 
a great deal of human nature in that question. The world, like the 
little girl, thinks that all who are especially exposed ought to be 
prepared for a sudden death. But when they leave the powder-mill 
they forget the impressions it made upon them. I once lived not 
far from a sea-captain who, it was said, in pleasant weather would 
stand on the deck and defy the Almighty God, but in a storm would 
fall on his knees and pray. 

Library.— Plutarch's " Delay of Divine Justice," p. 48. The Gar- 
dens of Adonis. 

7. Some Fell Among Thorns, — " There are a great many more 
thorny plants in Palestine than in America, and these plants love 
the wheat-fields. The farmers have a habit of going out before these 
thorns go to seed, and gathering them with a sickle. But some farm- 
ers are too lazy, and others neglect a corner of their fields, and it 
will presently be overrun with coarse thorns. But the stalks rot 
away and disappear in the winter, and only their seeds re- 
ornsin ^^iin concealed in the ground at the season of sowing. 
The earth looks like that of the rest of the field ; and the 
farnler ploughs in his seed with a good heart, in hopes of an abun- 
dant return. But the thorns spring up with the wheat ; and, being 
much stronger, their roots soon twine about those of the wheat, and 
absorb all the water from the ground, and their plants overshadow 
the green blades. And so the plants either make no seeds, or so few 
and poor ones that the farmer does not care to pick out the stalks 
from the thorns, and he either burns them altogether, or threshes 
out all as food for his donkey." 

— Rev. Dr. Post, in Schaff's Bible Dictionary. 

"These thorns are not brier-bushes or brambles among which the 
seed falls, but an after-growth of a variety of thistles, as is intimated 



XIII : 7 MATTHEW 243 



A.D. 28. 

Autumn. 

BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAB. 
THE TEAK OF 
DEVELOPMENT. 

PARABLE 
OP SOWER. 



in the phrase, ' the thorns sprang up and choked 
it.' These thistles come up thickly in every 
wheat-field in Palestine, but the natural time for 
them to appear is after the wheat is ripened. 
When, therefore, the wheat is reaped the ground 
is seen covered with the new green growth of 
this strong-leaved thistle, which then springs rap- 
idly up to about the same height, and as dense, 
as the wheat which preceded it. As it dries it 
becomes very hard, with a metallic ring when 
struck, and turns white, so that at a distance it resembles a harvest- 
field with grain, and thus gives point to the words of 
Jeremiah (xii. 13), 'They have sown wheat, but shall 
reap thorns' — a very painful harvest, for the spikes on the thistles' 
leaves are both long and sharp. But as the productive parts of 
a field in Palestine will sooner or later be covered with these 
thorns, the lesson of the parable is not that Christians will escape 
thorny days by rich fruit-bearing. Strong and abundant thistles, 
on the contrary, are signs of naturally good soil. It is Christian 
to be diligent in business, though the result be increase in the 
world's goods, with consequent cares and responsibilities. But what 
a sower in Palestine knows that he should do is to get his seed in 
early. If he sows too late, his wheat will have a hard contest with 
the inevitable thorns which will be sure to appear in their time." 

"Get the heavenly seed in early; for if it be first received in the 
time that the cares of this life are multiplying, it is the nature of 
these to grow, after they start, much faster than wheat ever does. I 
have seen some good stalks of wheat which have managed to hold 
their own against the crowd of thistles all round them ; 
but in the field of life, those who would approach Chris- Wheat 
tians in such case are apt to feel the prick of the thorns xhoms. 
sooner than they can recognize the Sower's fruit, so 
hedged in are they likely to be with the hard exclusiveness of 
worldly prosperity. 

" The deceptive resemblance at a distance of a thistle-covered field 
to one of good grain has its counterpart in many a showy but utterly 
barren, if not cruel, growth of modern civilization." 

— Prof. Wm. H. Thomson, iti Parables in Their Home. 



Library. — Compare Ovid's "Metamorphoses," V., 486. 



244: SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 7 

" Now the too ardent sun, now furious shown. 
With baleful stars and bitter winds combine, 
The crop to ravage ; while the greedy fowl 
Snatch the strewn seeds : and grass with stubborn roots, 
And thorn and darnel plague the ripening grain." 



Evil of Excess of Good. — We may be ruined by the excess 
of things which are right in themselves. Trees will not flourish on 
the north side of the house, nor many flowers under the dense shade 
of trees ; nor religion under the shade of excessive cares and labors 
to become rich. 



The Deceitfulness of Riches.— "We have had in New York, 
an ice-storm where the gently descending rain froze as it fell, until 
it covered every tree and shrub with a raiment of brilliancy as if it 
had been plaited in diamond, and hung with the finest diamond 
drops — brilliant, superb to look upon, almost an apocalypse of natu- 
ral beauty. Yet the very brilliant garniture overwhelmed and de- 
stroyed what was tender and vital in the shrub it adorned. So 
devotion to the accumulation of wealth, to pleasure, may destroy 
that which is finest and grandest in our spiritual nature." 

— Report of Sermon by R. S. Storrs, D.D. 



Trees Killed by Entwining Plants. — "It is not the green 
and tender corn only which is smothered. I have seen the stately 
tree, with roots struck deep in the soil, and giant arms that had bat- 
tled with the tempest, fall a prey to a low and ignoble creeper, fasten- 
ing on it, rising on it, twining its pliant branches around the massive 
trunk, binding it more and more closely in its fatal embrace : the 
weak strangled the strong to death." — T. Guthrie. 



Virgil's story of Laocoon and his sons crushed by enfolding ser- 
pents. The statue illustrating the story, found in many art gal- 
leries. 



Illustrations. — A watch in an electric light plant. A person 
living in a malarious region. Flowers in the shade. Grass in a forest. 
The lower limbs of all forest trees. 



XIII : 8, 9 MATTHEW 245 



8. But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, 
some a hundredfold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold. 

9. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. 



A.B>. 28. 

A utiimn. 

BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAK. 
THE TEAK OF 
DEVELOPMENT. 

'PARABLE 
OF SOWER. 



8. Some Fell on Good Ground Some 

AN Hundred Fold.— "The return," says Trench 
" of an hundred for one is not unheard of in the 
East, though always mentioned as something 
extraordinary" {Parables, p. 'jd, ed. 1857). At 
Geneva, in 1855, I got from an adjoining field 
a single ear or spike of barley containing 276 grains. Trench, 
in a note, remarks that ' Herodotus mentions that two hundred- 
fold was a common return in the plain of Babylon, 
and sometimes three ; and Niebuhr mentions a species ^^^^^ ^^^' 
of maize that returns four hundredfold.' In 1868, a year 
remarkable for its heat in Great Britain, it is mentioned in the news- 
papers that, in a field of wheat in Kent, there were many single seeds 
which produced, each, ' thirty straws, topped with closely set and 
fully developed ears, which yielded between 900 and 1,000 grains 
from a single parent seed.' " — Morison, 



Results from one Coffee-Plant. — Sixteen years ago a single 
small coffee-plant was sent to Blantyre, Africa, and from it five mil- 
lion coffee-trees have since been derived. How like the growth of a 
good seed and its influence ! 



9. Who hath Ears to Hear, let him Hear. — "There is a form 
of deafness known to physicians in which the person affected is able 
to hear everything except words. In such a case the ear, as an ap- 
paratus for mere hearing, may be so perfect that the tick of a watch 
or the song of a bird is readily appreciated, but owing to a local 
Injury deeper than the ear, for it is in the brain itself, all spoken 
words of his mother tongue are as unintelligible to the sufferer as 
those of a foreign language. Give him a book, and he may read as 
understandingly as ever, but every word addressed to him through his 
ear reaches his consciousness only as a sound, not as a 
word. There is a moral deafness which corresponds to Peculiar 

1 • 1 . . . r- . , , . , . , . - . Kind of 

this physical infirmity, but which, instead of being rare. Deafness. 

is as common as it is harmful and disabling. To all 

men there is given an inner ear, which has been fashioned to hear 



\ 



246 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 9 

wisdom's words, but that ear often seems so dull of hearing that 
there appears no sign pf response to her utterances. Now it was 
just such an unreceptive state of soul and of feeling in the people 
which we are told led Jesus to speak to them in parables." 

—Prof. W. H. Thomson, M.D., LL.D. 



Deafness to Certain Sounds. — An editor of a Western paper 
gives an account of his peculiar kind of deafness. He can hear 
certain sounds perfectly well, but to others he is entirely deaf. He 
never heard a bird sing, and believed their reported songs were all 
imagination. A policeman by his side would blow his whistle loud 
enough to be heard half a mile, but he heard nothing. The lower 
notes of a piano he heard with perfect distinctness, but not a sound 
from the upper notes. So the sound of God's word falls upon the 
hearts of men who know and feel earthly things, but have stopped 
their ears to heavenly things. 



The Church Attendant who never Heard a Sermon. — " A 
dying, despairing man, addressing one under whose ministry he had 
sat for twenty years, said, ' I have never heard a single sermon ! ' 
The minister, who had known him for years as a constant hearer, 
looked astonished, fancied that he was raving. But not so. The 
man was in his sad and sober senses. ' I attended church,' he 
explained, ' but my habit was, so soon as you began the sermon, to 
begin a review of last week's trade, and to anticipate and arrange 
the business of the next.* " — Londoii Sunday- School Chronicle, 



" One of Plato's epigrams expresses a wish for the thousand eyes 
of the starry skies that he might gaze his fill on the star of his life. 

" D'Artagnan, in the ante-chamber of M. de Treville, is described as 
looking with all his eyes, and listening with all his ears, stretching 
his five senses so as to lose nothing," 

— Jacox's Secular Annotations, I., 386. 



The Two Travelers. — " ' The difference between landscape and 
landscape is small,' says Emerson, ' but there is great difference in 
the beholders.' 

" Starr King quotes a little German poem which tells in beautiful 
simplicity how differently different eyes look upon the things of 
nature. ' Two men had gone up from the city to the summit of one 



XIII: 10-13 MATTHEW 247 



A.D. 28. 

Autumn. 
BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

MIDDLE OF 
SECOND TEAR 
THE YEAR OP 
DEVELOPMENT. 

PARABLE 

OP SOWER 

EXPLAINED. 



10. And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speak- 
eth thou unto them in parables ? 

11. He answered and said unto them, Because it is given 
unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but 
to them it is not given. 

12. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall 
have more abundance : but whosoever hath not, from him shall 
be taken away even that he hath. 

13. Therefore speak I to them in parables : because they 
seeing see not ; and hearing they hear not, neither do they 
understand. 

of the Alps. They returned, and their kindred pressed about them 
to know what visions they had enjoyed. 

" 'Twas a buzz of questions on every side, 

' And what have you seen } Do tell ! ' they cried. 

" The one with yawning made reply, 
' What have we seen } Not much have I ! 
Trees, mountains, meadows, groves, and streams, 
Blue sky, and clouds, and sunny gleams.' 

** The other, smiling, said the same ; 

But with face transfigured, and eyes of flame : 
* Trees, meadows, mountains, groves, and streams. 

Blue sky, and clouds, and sunny gleams.' 



/ 



" A dog may see a fine painting or a piece of faultless sculpture, 
but does such seeing benefit or gratify him ? A cow may look upon 
a cathedral, or a bird upon a landscape, without any thrill of 
pleasure or sense of profit therefrom. And many a man gains no 
more from his seeing a thing of beauty or a scene of grandeur than 
if he were a dog, a cow, or a bird." — Sunday- School Times, 



Library. — Prof. Scripture's " Thinking, Feeling, Doing," has 
several illustrations. 

12. Whosoever Hath, to Him shall be Given. — "Good thoughts 
already retained make the retention of others like them easier. 
More and more seed then will be sown in time, for it is only over 
poor ground that the sower passes but once, while he returns again 



248 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : I4-23 



14. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye 
shall hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive : 

15. For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and 
their eyes they have closed ; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and 
hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be con- 
verted, and I should heal them. 

16. But blessed are your eyes, for they see : and your ears, for they hear. 

17. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous vien have desired 
to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them ; and to hear those 
thijzgs which ye hear, and have not heard them. 

38, T[ Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. 

19. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, 
then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. 
This is he which received seed by the way side, 

20. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the 
word, and anon with joy receiveth it ; 

21. Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while : for when tribulation 
or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. 

22. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word ; and 
the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he 
becometh unfruitful. 

23. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and 
understandeth it ; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, 
some sixty, some thirty. 

and again to the more promising soil to make sure that it gets its 
full share."— IV. H. Thomson, 
Reference. See on xxv. 29. 



Reference.— 14-16. See on verse 9. 



Library. — 15. "Cheyne (Isaiah) cites the case of a son of the 

Great Mogul, who had his eyes sealed up three years by 

Eyes That j^j^ father as a punishment. Dante pictures the envious, 
See Not. , f • r t^ . , , . 

on the second cornice of Purgatory, with their eyes 
sewed up : 

" ' For all their lids an iron wire transpierces, 
And sews them up, as to a sparhawk wild 
Is done, because it will not quiet stay.' " 

(Purgatorio, XIII., 70-72) — M. R. Vince7it. 

21. Tribulation. — 01i-\\m.K, pressure. According to an old English 
law, those who wilfully refused to plead had heavy weights placed 



XIII : 24 MATTHEW 249 



24. HI Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The 
kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good 
seed in his field : 



A.l>. 28. 

Autumn. 
BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

MIDDLE OF 
SECOND TEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
DEVELOPMENT. 

PARABLE 
OF THE 
TARES. 



on their breasts, and so were pressed and crushed to 
death. An example is given in early New England 
history of the infliction of this Peine forte et dure. 

"This word, tribidatio7i, both the English and 
the Latin equivalent of the Greek, is derived 
from the Latin ' tribiihmi^ ' which was the thresh- 
ing instrument or roller whereby the Roman husbandman sepa- 
rated the corn from the husks ; and ' tribulatio ' in its primary 
significance was the act of this separation. But sorrow, 
distress, and adversity, being the appointed means for tribulation, 
the separating in men of their chaff from their wheat, of whatever 
in them was light, and trivial, and poor, from the solid and the 
true ; therefore these sorrows were called ' tribulations,' threshings, 
z. e., of the inner spiritual man, without which there could be no 
fitting him for the heavenly garner." — R. C. Trench. 

Often numberless small annoyances are greater tribulations than 
heavy sorrows. A whole army has been defeated by wasps. Tribula- 
tion is the school of patience. And it is the test of patience. 



24. Sowed Good Seed. — " The soil corresponds to the human, 
the seed to the divine element in the sowing. Now it is in the seed 
that the whole mystery of life on earth is enwrapped. This mystery 
modern science has intensified far beyond what men in the age of 
the parables could have imagined. 

'' We now know that the actually living part of such 
seeds is wonderfully smaller, and, in fact, at first is to '^^^ lymg 
the unaided eye invisibly hid in the mass of the apparent 
seed, for this consists mainly of a store of food for the true seed 
within v/hen it shall begin to grow. It is, therefore, at a seed that 
all who attempt materialistic explanations of life find themselves 
baffled. Every living thing, be it an oak or a whale, has to begin its 
individual existence as a unicellular organism, a microscopic speck. 
To the biologist, therefore, it is a much greater thing when it exists 
as a vanishing-point of matter, than when it has attained to the 
vast bulk of mature development, for by that time it has outgrown 
and spent many of the potencies which were in it at the beginning. 



250 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 25, 26 



25. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and 
went his way . 

26. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the 
tares also. 

In that small beginning not only was every after-development 
already determined to a finality, but it also contained the stored-up 
inheritance of untold generations." 

— Dr. W. H. Thomson, in Parables and Their Home. 



The Good Seed are the Children of the Kingdom. — 
Hence living seed. " Perhaps the better part of most good and use- 
ful lives is the part that never gets into the written biography, that 
cannot be written. It is probable that in nearly every life this is the 
better part, that its unconscious, unwritten, unpurposed influences 
aggregate more in the end than the things wrought out with labor 
and pains, and thought of as making the real life-work. An artist 
spends years in a foreign city, studying the works of the great mas- 
ters, and then with glowing inspiration cuts in the marble the ideal 
forms of his own dreams and visions. The figures are packed and 
sent home. The boxes are carefully opened, and the marbles are 
admired and praised by thousands. The artist's ambition is grati- 
fied, and he rejoices in his triumph. But hidden in the straw in 
which the noble works were packed were a number of little seeds. 
The straw is scattered about the grounds, and the next 
Unconscious gpj-j^g rare foreign flowers spring up beside the artist's 
of the Good, doorway. The pieces of statuary were the purposed re- 
sults of those many years abroad ; the flowers exhaling 
their fragrance were the accidental, unplanned, unintended results. 
So good men and women go on with their great purposes and plans, 
but there is at the same time an unperceived, unnoted ministry, 
which yields many a sweet flower," — Sunday-School Times. 



25. His Enemy sowed Tares among the Wheat. — Trench 
relates a similar trick of malice from Ireland, where he knew an 
outgoing tenant who, in spite at his ejection, sowed 
Modern ^jj^ ^^^^ -^^ ^y^^ fields of the proprietor, which ripened 
and seeded themselves before the crops, so that it be- 
came next to impossible to get rid of them. Dr. Alford, too, men- 
tions that a field belonging to him in Leicestershire, England, was 



XIII: 2/, 28 MATTHEW 251 



A.D. 28. 

Autumn. 
BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

MIDDLE OF 
SECOND TEAR, 
THE TEAR OP 
DEVELOPMENT. 

PARABLE 
OP THE 
TARES. 



27. So the servants of the householder came and said unto 
him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field ? from 
whence then hath it tares ? 

28. He said unto them. An enemy hath done this. The 
servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather 
them up ? 

maliciously sown with charlock, and that heavy 
damages were obtained by the tenant against the 
offender. 

The Tares are the children of the wicked one, who are filled 
with his spirit, live according to his principles, and are under his 
control. They are not a degenerate form of virtue, but as distinct 
as virtue and vice. They often resemble the good till the fruit 
begins to appear, but they are as different as wheat and tares, as 
thistles and roses. 

Good Soil for Wheat is Fertile for Tares.— The better 
the soil for wheat, the better it is for tares. The more the ground 
is prepared for the good, the more earnest Satan is to plant the bad. 
There are a thousand weeds sown in a garden to one in the Sahara 
sands. There are many more evils in the civilized land made so 
by Christian principles, than in the wilds of savage life. Dr. Thom- 
son says : " Never has there been a fresh beginning for better things 
in this world without its affording new opportunities of its own 
making for the growth of tares. Hence have come the sad disap- 
pointments of many reformers, who, while rejoicing at 

the doing away of old evils, as if every evil would then -^PP^^ca- 

1 ' r 1 . , ,^ , . . tions. 

cease, have quite forgotten how men with selfish instincts 

would find this newly prepared field good for them also. Thus we 
can imagine how the heroes of liberty in English or American his- 
tory would be dismayed if they could return now to the scenes of 
their labors. In view of the rank growth of abuses in our legislative 
and municipal affairs, how natural it would be for them to exclaim, 
* Did we not sow good seed in this field } From whence then hath 
it tares ? '" 

We are to measure the values not by counting the weeds, but by 
the number and usefulness of the good plants. 



Weeds Sown Unconsciously.— "As botanists assure us that 



252 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII: 



29. But he said, Nay ; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat 
with them. 

the North American continent now abounds with European weeds 
which colonists unwittingly introduced with the grains which they 
brought with them, so the universality of the law of the spiritual 
tares has never escaped illustration in the history of our religious 
sects, from the largest to the smallest of them." 

— Dr. W. H. Tho7nson, 

Scotch Thistle in California. — Two Scotchmen emigrated 
in the early days to California. Each thought to take with him some 
mem.orial of his beloved country. One of them, an enthusiastic 
lover of Scotland, took with him a thistle, the national emblem. 
The other took a small swarm of honey bees. Years have passed 
away. The Pacific coast is. on the one hand, cursed with the Scotch 
thistle, which the farmers find it impossible to exterminate ; on the 
other hand, the forests and fields are fragrant and laden with the 
sweetness of honey, which has been and is still one of the blessings 
of the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. 



Library. — In " The Land of the Kangaroo," we are told, how an 
enthusiastic Scotchman brought with him to Australia a thistle 
plant on his return from Scotland. It was welcomed by a great din- 
ner, of which the thistle was the center-piece. Speeches were made 
and congratulations offered. But the thistle soon scattered its seeds, 
till thistles became one of the great pests of the country, and an Act 
of Parliament was passed for their destruction. 



Vedder's Picture in New York. — "In the autumn of 1894 a 
painting by Vedder was exhibited in New York City, which showed, 
as few modern works of art do, the innermost fact in the problem of 
the world's moral life, now up for solution. The painter called his 
parable of life, as it was put on the large canvas, ' The Devil Sowing 

Tares.' The whole atmosphere was dark, mysterious, 
Parable. ^"^ lowering, set in a light that struck the observer with 

awe, as in the presence of some dread problem going on 
beneath those portentous clouds. Before him was a bare and rock- 
paved slope, curving upward, like another Golgotha, to an upright 
post, at the base of which the letters I N R I plainly intimated that 



XIII : 30 MATTHEW 253 



30. Let both grow together until the harvest : and in the 
time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together 
first the tares, and bind them in bundles to bum them : but 
gather the wheat into my bam. 



A.». 28. 

A utmnn. 
BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAE 
CAPERNAUM. 

MIDDLE OF 

SECOND YEAK. 

THE TEAR OP 

DEVELOPMENT. 

PARABLE 
OF THE 
TARES. 



it was the foot of the cross, the center of redeem- 
ing influences streaming forth down the eastern 
slope of Golgotha into the cold, dark, worldly mys- 
tery around, and off toward a horizon with faint , j , -^^-^-^^- ^^ 
streaks of light breaking on it. In the foreground 
was Satan, with malignant leer, holding beneath one brawny arm a 
pot of gold, and with the other he was sowing the coins, as a sower 
flings the seed, up toward the cross. He was poisoning the very foun- 
tain of redemption. He was setting gold to work against the gospel, 
the seduction of luxury, the charm of opulence, the fierce temptation 
to be rich, the looming up of worldly grandeur, coins of different size 
and shape, but all the devil's gold, and all now thrown into the garden 
soil of Christian life and character, to seed it with tares, or into the 
fountain of faith to poison it at the source. This is the painter's 
parable of the church's trial in the present age. This is the par- 
able of the devil poisoning the fountains ; not for the slums, but for 
the Christain churches and homes." — {^See full description in the 
Independent of Nov. 22, 1894.) 



' The lie brought forth others, 
Dark sisters and brothers, 
And fathers and mothers, 
A horrible crew." 



30. Let BOTH Grow together until the Harvest. — "It is 
said to be the only grass which bears a poisonous seed, * a fitting 
symbol of the fruit of the devil's sowing.' It grows fre- 
quently with the wheat and so nearly resembles it as to wheat, 
be practically indistinguishable until the grain is headed 
out. 'There can be no mistake then. As once I heard it remarked 
in that country, 'the ears which God has blessed bow their heads, 
but these accursed tares stick theirs above the whole field ! ' For 
the tare then carries a tall, light head of small, dark grains which 
in every respect contrasts with the weighty, golden ear of the good 
seed.',"— Z>r. W. H. Thomson. 



25tl: SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 30 

" The good and the evil are not found here as genuine and coun- 
terfeit coins may be heaped together." But the roots are inter- 
woven. Persecutions and trials for heresy have more often rooted 
up wheat than tares. 

Tares and Wheat Growing Together. — It is wise to let 
wheat and tares grow together, because the wheat may have a good 
influence over the tares, and change them into wheat, This is ex- 
pressed a few verses later in the parable of the leaven. 

" Cultivation, improvement by tillage, has done a good deal for 
Weeds some weeds. The potato used to be called a weed, but 

Changed we do not Call it so now, because, by much care and 

to Useful attention, it has become useful, profitable, and far from 
Plants. , , ^ 

troublesome to man. 

" I think the tomato was once called a weed also. You can see 

why it is no longer. Perhaps some of you can remember, or find 

out, about other plants that have lost the odious title." 

— Juniata Stafford, i7i Sunday-School Times. 

" Wiser would it be to accept the simple thought of the Syrian 

peasants, who to this day believe that tares can best be kept down 

by nourishing to the utmost the life of the good seed." 

—Dr. W. H. Thomson. 

Christians themselves are educated and disciplined by contact 
with the tares. They would not be nearly so good if shut off in a 
community by themselves. Tares would still come in. If the wheat 
does not seek to change the tares into wheat, the wheat will degen- 
erate into tares. 



The Harvest. — "One day the master of Lukman (an Eastern 
fabulist) said to him, ' Go into such a field and sow barley.' Lukman 
sowed oats instead. At the time of harvest his master went to the 
place and, seeing the green oats springing up, asked him, ' Did I not 
tell you to sow barley here ? Why, then, have you sown oats ? ' He 
answered, 'I sowed oats in the hope that barley would grow up.' 
His master said, 'What foolish idea is this.^ Have you ever heard 
of the like?' Lukman replied, 'You yourself are constantly sowing 
in the field of the world the seeds of evil, and yet expect to reap in 
the resurrection day the fruits of virtue. Therefore I thought also I 
might get barley by sowing oats.' The master was abashed at the 
reply and set Lukman free." — Biblical Treasury, 



XIII: 31 MATTHEW 255 



31. % Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The 
kingdom of heaven is like to a gram of mustard seed, which a 
man took and sowed in his field : 



A.D. 28. 

Auiumn. 
BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

One Crop, but of Oaks. — There was an abbot secoxd year. 

, J . J . , J ^1 ^ 1 • THE YB^R OF 

who desired a piece of ground that lay conveni- development. 
ently for him. The owner refused to sell, yet with -^J^mo^^ 

. OF THE 

much persuasion was contented to let it. The mustard 

abbot hired it and covenanted only to farm it for ^ ^^ 

one crop. He had his bargain and sowed it with 
acorns, — a crop that lasted three hundred years. So Satan asks to 
get possession of our souls by asking us to permit some small sin to 
enter, some one wrong that seems of no great account. But when 
once he has entered and planted the seeds and beginnings of evil he 
holds his ground and sins and evils multiply. 



the sowers. 

"Ten thousand sowers through the land 
Passed heedless on their way ; 
Ten thousand seeds in every hand 

Of every sort had they. 
They cast seed here. 
They cast seed there, 

They cast seed everywhere. 

" Anon, as many a year went by. 
These sowers came once more, 
And wandered 'neath the leaf-hid sky 

And wondered at the store, 
For fruit hung here. 
And fruit hung there. 

And fruit hung everywhere. 

" Nor knew they in their tangled wood 
The trees that were their own ; 
Yet as they plucked, as each one should, 

Each plucked what he had sown. 
So do men here, 
So do men there, 

So do men everywhere." 



256 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 32 



32. Which indeed is the least of all seeds : but when it is grown it is the greatest 
among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the 
branches thereof. 

32. Which is Indeed the Least of all Seeds. — "The char- 
acterization of the mustard seed as Mess than all the seeds that be in 
the earth ' (Mark iv. 31) was as truthful a statement by our Lord as 
when in the parable of the sower he said, * when the sun 
Truthfulness ^^g j-jggj^ > (^-^ y.), though in neither case was he scien- 

Accuracy. tifically accurate, for the sun never rises, and botanists 
know of smaller seeds than those of mustard. But truth- 
fulness and accuracy are not necessarily synonymous terms. Nothing 
can be more accurate than a photograph from life, for no inaccuracy can 
be detected in it even by a microscope. But people will continue to 
prefer and to pay for an expensive portrait by a skilled artist, with 
all his human mistakes, rather than for the sorry likenesses which 
the accurate sun often makes of their friends. Our Lord was speak- 
ing to the people of seeds which they daily used." 

— Fro/. IV. H. Thoinson. 

Becometh a Tree. 



Library. — Dr. Dorchester's " Religious Progress of the World " 
and Dr. A. F. Schauffler's " Progress of Missions " give statistics and 
diagrams showing in most interesting and vivid ways how wonder- 
fully the religion of Christ has progressed in the world. 

" Out of the shadows of night 
The world rolls into light ; 
' It is daybreak everywhere." 



1000 

i8uo 
1800 
1880 



Christians. 



50 millions. 
100 " 
200 " 
41S 



Average. 



Doubled in 5CX5 years. 
80 " 



Average 
per year. 



50,000 

100,000 

450,000 

2,688,000 



Reference. See on xxiv. 14. 



A D. 

1500 



A.D. 
1 800 



1880. 




415 m 



XIII : 33 MATTHEW 257 



33. H Another parable spake he unto them ; The kingdom 
of heaven is hke unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in 
three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. 

Library. — The progress, unfolded from the 
nature of the seed, is well illustrated by the con- 
trast between the fruit-tree of Mohammedanism, 
and the fruit-tree of Christianity, in Prof. Thom- 
son's " Parables and Their Home," pp. 91-96. 



A.D. 28. 

Autuvtn. 
BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 
THE TEAR OP 
DEVELOPMENT. 

PARABLE 
OP THE 
LEAVEN. 



33. Like unto Leaven.—" To this parable of the leaven modern 
science gives a peculiar significance which was wholly unknown in 
the times when the parable was first uttered. Then, and 
until very lately, it was supposed that the leavening of 
bread was caused by an inanimate material acting by purely physical 
processes upon the meal which it fermented. Pasteur has demon- 
strated, to the acceptance of the whole scientific world, that ferments 
are not portions of lifeless organic matter; but are actual living 
organisms, and that the fermentation which they occasion is a neces- 
sary consequence or manifestation of their vital activity and growth." 

— Prof. W. H. Thoinso7i. 

Catalysis. — " Leaven is an example of those changes in bodies 
which are called catalysis. In catalysis the mere presence of a cer- 
tain body among the particles of another produces the most exten- 
sive changes among those particles, and yet the body thus operating 
is itself unaffected. This is the case with leaven. One sees from 
the commotion among its particles, that a change is going on in its 
internal condition, and that new compounds are forming out of its 
elements. Introduced in that state into the meal, it communicates 
a change to the whole mass analogous to that which it is itself expe- 
riencing. 07te part 7nixed with 2,000 parts will change the whole in 
a few hours. It had long been a mystery how so small a quantity of 
one substance should be able to effect such a change upon so large 
a mass of another. But the discovery that leaven contains 2, fungus 
plant which multiplies with prodigious rapidity, and is sustained by 
the matter into which the leaven is introduced, furnishes an explana- 
tion. This yeast pla7it consists of myriads of cells, scarcely more 
than one three-thousandth of an inch in diameter. And it has the 
power o( converting sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid, and finally 



258 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 34-39 



34. All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables ; and without a 
parable spake he not unlo them : 

35. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open 
my mouth in parables ; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the 
foundation of the world. 

36. Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house : and his dis- 
ciples came unto him, saying. Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. 

37. He answered and said unto them. He that soweth the good seed is the Son of 
man ; 

38. The field is the world ; the good seed are the children of the kingdom ; but the 
tares are the children of the wicked one ; 

39. The enemy that sowed them is the devil ; the harvest is the end of the world ; 
and the reapers are the angels. 

into vinegar. Note the two principles : (i) It needs but a very small 
quantity of leaven to produce a complete change in a very large 
amount of farinaceous matter. (2) It is only necessary to start the 
process in one or a few spots in order to have it permeate the entire 
heap (unless, as in bread, the process be stopped by heat). ' The 
whole secret of the spread of Christianity over the world in in this 
figure of the leaven. It is fire that kindles fire ; love that kindles 
love ; Christianity manifested that spreads Christianity.' " 

— Dr. Hitchcock. 



Indirect Action of Leaven.—" One result of the action of 
these living cells is the formation of what may be termed pervasive 
chemical principles, which extend to some distance from the cells 
into the surrounding fermentable material, profoundly, though at 
first scarcely visibly, modifying it, and preparing it for the subsequent 
extension to it of the growing ferment." — W. H. Tkojnson. 

This accurately expresses the leavening power of Christianity as 
it extends its influence far beyond its actual disciples. 



"Wild " Yeast. — " The desired result is often utterly vitiated by 
the contamination of the proper ferment by the entrance with it of 
some form of what is technically termed a ' wild ' yeast, which may 
grow so as wholly to supplant with its evil working the action of a 
' cultivated ' yeast. How to procure a ' pure ' yeast is therefore one 
of the most carefully investigated problems of this branch of eco- 
nomic chemistry." — Thomso7i. 

This is an excellent illustration of the way that " wild " ideas, and 



XIII:40-44 MATTHEW 259 



A D. 28. 

Aututnn. 
BY THE SEA 
OP GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND TEAR. 
THE TEAR OF 
DEVELOPMENT. 

PARABLE 

OF THE 

HID 

TREASURE. 



40. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; 
so shall it be in the end of this world. 

41. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they 
shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them 
which do iniquity ; 

42. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire : there shall be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

43. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the 
kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. 

a^ . *i Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid 
in a field ; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and 
for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. 

false principles pervade Christendom, and great care is needed to ex- 
clude or supplant them. 

Like to Like. — " That which is once leavened becomes leaven to 
the rest; since as the spark, v^^hen it takes hold of wood, makes 
that which is already kindled to transmit the flame, and so seizes 
still upon more, thus it is also with the preaching of the Word." — 
Chrysostom. 

43. Shine Forth. — kKAdfulmvaiv , shine out as from clouds and mists 
which had obscured their brightness. 



44. Like unto Treasure hid in a Field. 

Library. — Prof. W. H. Thomson, LL.D., the son of the author of 
the " Land and the Book," born and brought up in Syria, has written 
the freshest and, in many respects, the best book on the Parables in 
this chapter, called " The Parables and Their Home." It is full of 
illustrations from the Orient, like the one that follows. 



Hid Treasure in Syria. — " What it is to find a hid treasure in 
Syria was once well illustrated during my residence in Sidon. A 
land-owner of the town had hired a band of seventeen peasants, 
men and women, to dig up a field of about an acre to plant it with 
orange-trees. For such a purpose the custom is to run close 
together parallel trenches about three feet in depth, and then turn the 
soil into them until the whole field is thus gone over. As I watched 
them from the windows of our house on the city wall, I was amused 



260 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 44 

at the slowness of their work, one man pushing into the soft sandy- 
soil a long wooden shovel, which was then pulled out by another 
with a rope. For such labor the daily wages of the men was about 
twelve cents of our money, and of the women nine, paid in the 
wretched, dark-looking Turkish piastre, which is a thin piece of 
copper with a trace of a silver coating, 

" One day two of the men while in a trench turned up a leaden 

box more than a foot long, and as the man with the spade was a 

dull fellow his companion lifted it out and threw it under a fig-tree 

near by, remarking, * This is nothing but an old relic ; we will see 

what it contains by and by.' In a moment, however, 

Treasure, another box was' unearthed, which, on being struck with 
the spade, let out a stream of glittering pieces of gold ! 
In a moment the whole seventeen men and women were upon the 
spot in a heap, fighting and screaming as only Arabs can at such a 
sight, until one of them sagely called for silence lest their bubbub 
should attract others to share the prize with them. * Let us quietly 
dig,' said he, ' and see if there any more of these precious boxes, and 
then at night we will divide the treasure equally among us.' His 
advice was followed, when a third box was found, and as the sequel 
showed, probably a fourth. 

" They were all gold coins of Philip of Macedon and of Alexander 
the Great, of the most beautiful workmanship, the latter appearing 
as if they had been just struck from the mint. The latter were 
probably deposited by some embezzler among Alexander's own army 
officials. 

" It can be readily appreciated that to any one of that poverty- 
stricken band the disparity between the worth of the least of these 
gold pieces and the utmost reward of his daily toil would make him 
willing to part with all his worldly goods, if so he could gain that 
treasure. 

" The land of the parables is, in fact, undoubtedly full of such 
buried treasures, for scarce a year passed of my residence there in 
which I did not hear of such discoveries." — Pro/. W. H. Thomso7t. 

This hiding is still going on, as it is necessary, where there are 
no banks, where massacres are frequent, and there is great dif- 
ficulty in transferring such treasure from one country to another. 
In the unsettled state of the country often the owners never returned, 
and all knowledge of the treasure was lost. 

Library. — " In the 'Reminiscences of the Great Mutiny,' by W. 



XIII: 44 MATTHEW 261 



Forbes Mitchell, p. 152, is given a graphic account 'i * ^ ^ — 

Autumn. 
BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

KEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

SECOND -TEAK. 
THE YEAR OF 
DEVELOPMENT. 

PARABLE 

OF THE 

HID 

TREASURE. 



of the labors of the soldiers of the 93d High- 
landers, with other detachments, in raising, from 
a well at Poona, boxes containing money valued 
at ;i{^3o6,25o, besides plate and other valuables said 
to be worth more than a million sterling, which 
had been secreted there by Nana Sahib in his 
flight from Cawnpore." 

— Note to Parables a?id Their Home. 



New Treasures in Old Things. — New experiences and deeper 
study reveal new preciousness in religion and in Christ, as the tele- 
scope and microscope reveal wonders in the world wholly unseen by 
the natural eyes. Science has not created a new world, but only 
revealed more treasures in the old world. We do not need a new 
Gospel, but only a fuller vision of the treasures in the old Gospel. 



More Truth to be Revealed.— This parable is interpreted 
and applied by the charge of Pastor Robinson to his pilgrim flock, 
on the occasion of their embarking for New England : "I charge you 
before God and his blessed angels that you follow me no farther than 
you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has yet 
more truth to break out of his Holy Word. " 



How the Gospel Treasure is Hidden.— To many the treas- 
ure of the kingdom of God is hidden, because they do not realize its 
preciousness, like the children in South Africa whom the traveler 
found playing with diamonds thinking them to be common pebbles. 
He saw their value, and the African diamond mines were dis- 
covered. 



* * Oh, where is the sea ? ' the fishes cried. 

As they swam the crystal clearness through 
'We've heard from of old of the ocean's tide. 
And we long to look on the waters blue. 
The wise ones speak of an infinite sea ; 
Oh, who can tell us if such there be ? ' 



262 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 45, 46 

45. Again, the kingdom of heaven is Uke unto a merchant man, seeking goodly 
pearls : 

46. Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he 
had, and bought it. 

" The lark flew up in the morning bright, 
And sang and balanced on sunny wings, 
And this was its song — ' I see the light ; 
I look on a world of beautiful things ; 
And flying and singing everywhere 
In vain have I sought to find the air.' " 



Library. — The " Open Sesame " in " The Arabian Nights ; " the 
story of " Eyes and No Eyes." 



45. Seeking Goodly Pearls. — " No gem, in the estimation of the 
ancients, surpassed the pearl in value. The old writers speak of it 
as altogether wonderful, and to be honored above all jewels that the 
eyes of man have beheld. Nothing else was so pure, so rare, so ex- 
quisite. As for its origin, they thought it was at first a drop of dew 
from heaven, condensed within the sea-shell, and doubling there its 
native perfections. They thought, moreover, that 

The Pearl though bom beneath the waves, it retained some 
of Great , . . , . , . , , , 

Price. unknown connection with its home m the sky, tak- 
ing its beauty from the aspect of the heavens, and 
drawing virtue from them, limpid and clear when they were se- 
rene, turbid and cloudy when they were overcast. Its iridescence 
seemed the result of sympathy with the seven colors of the sun- 
beam ; even the shell which enclosed it partook of its silver beauty 
and many-hued reflections ; while it was accounted the very queen 
of gems, as that to which no graver's tools nor implement of man 
can add a charm" — Morgan Dix, D.D. 



Value of Pearls.—" It does not take a very large pearl to be 
worth thousands of dollars. The King of Persia paid six hundred 
thousand livres ($120,000) for one pearl; Cleopatra had a pearl 
worth three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and she dis- 
solved it at a feast, and then drank it to the health of Marc Antony; 
the King of Portugal had a pearl of almost indescribable value — so 



XIII : 47 MATTHEW 263 



47. If Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that 
was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind : 

that the pearl most appropriately becomes a sym- 
bol of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is of infinite 
value." — B. Keach. 



A.D. 28. 

Autumn. 
BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

MIDDLE OF 
SECOND YEAR. 
THE YEAR OF 
DEVELOPilENT. 
THE 

DRAW NET. 



" Julius Caesar gave Servilia, the mother of Bru- 
tus, a pearl worth 6,000,000 sesterces ($240,000). 
The famous pearl which Cleopatra dissolved and 
drank was one of a pair set in ear-rings, and worth 10,000,000 
sesterces ($400,000)." 

— Harper s New Dictionary of Classical Literature. 



" In all ages the pearl really possessing the purest tints outranks 
in costliness all except a few diamonds. 

"One famous pearl was brought from the Indies by 
Gorgibus, of Calais, and presented to Philip IV. of Spain. p^ ^^ '^ 
' How have you ventured,' asked Philip of the mer- 
chant, ' to put all your fortune into such a little object ? ' 'I knew 
there was in the world the king of Spain to buy it of me,' the mer- 
chant answered. There was but one royal way of rewarding such 
faith as this, and Philip IV. became forthwith the owner of the 
pearl of Gorgibus." — A popular account of Gems, by Louis Dieulafait, 
p. 196/ quoted ill Parables and Their Home. 



Two Aspects. — The treasure was found, without special seeking 
for it, in the round of daily duties. The pearl was sought often 
with great danger, and paid for at great cost. These two represent 
two aspects of the way the kingdom of heaven is attained. There are 
many pearls in the world, only one is worth selling all we have to 
obtain it. 

Derives Nothing from Art.— The kingdom of heaven is like 
the pearl in another aspect, referred to by Mr. Dieulafait : " Of all 
the objects employed as ornaments, the pearl is almost the only one 
which derives nothing from art. On the contrary all attempts to 
give it more value only end in deteriorating it." 



47. A Net. — aayijvri, a long drawn net or seine, which comes from 
sagena, the Latin transcription of oayijvri. " From the fact of its 



264 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 48 



48. Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the 
good into vessels, but cast the bad away. 



making a great sweep, the Greeks formed a verb from it, aayrjvevu, to 
suj'-round and take wit Ji a drag-net. Thus Herodotus (III., 149) says, 
' The Persians netted Samos.' And again (VI., 31), * Whenever they 
became masters of an island, the barbarians in every single instance 
netted the inhabitants.' " — Prof. M. R. Vincent. 



Gathered of Every Kind. — " During five pleasantly.spent years 

in the city of Saifa (Sidon) I would often time my evening walk so 

as to watch the fishermen draw their nets, about sundown, upon that 

stretch of soft sand. Before my first experience of the kind, I was 

not at all prepared for the large scale on which this work is done, 

nor for the immense size of the nets. At early dawn a fleet of boats 

may be seen close to a long line of huge floating corks, extending 

far out upon the glassy surface of the sea. The vast net, in fact, is 

dropped down ere the stars fade, and as the day wears 

Fishing in ^j^ ^^^ ^^^ jg brought to land by some of the boats, 

theSeaof , ., , , . f , -^ , . 

Galilee, while the Other is slowly swung round in a great sweep 

by the united tow of the others, and not till the close of 
a hard day's toil do the two ends approach each other, and the fish- 
ermen turn to and pull it up on shore. Then comes the exciting 
time for seeing whether the catch will repay the heavy labor of the 
day. Among those gathered within the net at one time was a large 
shoal of sting-rays, a fish which is a fiat, leathery, ungainly-looking 
creature, resembling our flounder, but armed with a long tapering 
tail ending in a barbed spine, which is a dangerous weapon both for 
offence and defence. When these are numerous, other fishes are 
apt to be scarce in the catch, and so the baskets were but half filled, 
while the discarded rays were left upon the sand. At times the 
dreaded electrical torpedo is landed, while at others the Sidon fish- 
ermen are driven to distraction by immense shoals of sardines, for, 
as the Arabs do not know how to preserve them, they simply leave 
them to poison the air with their decaying heaps. At no time is 
their catch good throughout, for the Mediterranean teems with a 
wonderful variety of life, including ' each kind of badness,' as every 
fisherman there will feelingly tell you." — Prof. W. H. Tho?nson, 



XIII : 49-52 MATTHEW 265 

4 



49. So shall it be at the end of the world : the angels shall 
come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just. 

50. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall 
be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

51. Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood ail these 
things ? They say unto him, Yea, Lord. 

52. Then said he unto them. Therefore every scribe which 
is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man 
that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure 
thins:s new and old. 



A.D. 28. 

A utumn. 
BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

MIDDLE OF 
SECOND YEAR. 
THE TEAB OF 
DEVELOPMENT. 

THINGS NEW 
AND OLD. 



Fishing for Men.— i. The world is the sea from which the 
Church gathers men. 

2. No comparison thus could have made plainer to the minds of 
those fishermen that the Church was destined in the future to 
extend immensely, for the net is much larger than the field of any 
sower. 

3. Good and bad were to be brought into the church in the very 
act of seeking for good or that which becomes good, because the 
Church can no more read the hearts of men than the fishermen can 
see the kinds of fish which the seine is gathering from the sea. The 
sting-rays, the torpedoes, and the sardines, insignificant in them- 
selves but troublesome from their numbers, are all types of men 
who have been brought unwittingly into the Church, but do not be- 
long there. 



49. The Angels shall .... sever the Wicked from Among 
THE Just. — " In the Bank of England is a curious machine, into 
which sovereigns are poured, like grain into a mill. As they pass 
on one by one, all that are of light weight are thrown to 
one side, those of full weight to another. So that the ^ank of 
distinction is made with unerring certainty. So will it xests^ 
be at the last day. No sin will pass the Great Judge un- 
detected. He knows the secrets of all hearts. Whatever has lain 
undiscovered by men will stand forth in naked reality then. Coun- 
terfeit Christianity and spurious philanthropy will be exposed." 



52. Things New and Old. — Some of the new things are far 
better than the old. Sometimes the old are better. I have been 



266 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIII : 53-55 



53. Tf And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these parables, he de- 
parted thence. 

54. And when he was come into his own country, he taught them in their syna- 
gogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this 
wisdom, and these mighty works ? 

55. Is not this the carpenter's son ? is not his mother called Mary ? and his breth- 
ren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas ? 



told by those who deal in stained glass, in response to 

Cologne ^ question as to why we could not make as beautiful 

Cathedral 7 , ^ • • , /- 1 1 i 1 

Windows, colors as those, for instance, in the Cologne cathedral 

windows, that age was necessary to the richness of 
those colors. The windows have an inch thick of dust upon them ; 
and when the windows of an English cathedral were washed at one 
time, the perfection of their beauty vanished. 



55. Is NOT This the Carpenter's Son?— Moses was the son of 
a poor slave Levite ; Gideon was a thresher ; David was a shepherd 
boy ; Euripides was the son of a fruiterer; Virgil, of a baker; Horace, 

of a freed slave ; Tamerlane, of a shepherd ; Ben Jonson, 
Examples, ^f a mason ; Shakespeare, of a butcher ; Melancthon, the 

great theologian of the Reformation, was an armorer; 
Luther was the child of a poor miner ; Fuller was a farm servant ; 
Carey, the originator of the plan of translating the Bible into the 
language of the millions of Hindostan, was a shoemaker; Morrison, 
who translated the Bible into the Chinese language, was a last- 
maker; Dr. Milne was a herd-boy; Adam Clarke was the child 
of Irish cotters. 



JOSEPH THE CARPENTER. 

' ' Isn't this Joseph's son ? ' Aye, it is He. 
' Joseph the carpenter ' — same trade as me ! 
I thought as I'd find it, I knew it was here, 
But my sight's getting queer. 

" I don't know right where as His shed might ha' stood, 
But often, as I've been a-planing my wood, 
I've took off my hat just with thinking of He 
At the same work as me. 



XIII: 56-58 



MATTHEW 



267 



56. And his sisters, are they not all with us ? Whence then 
hath this man all these things ? 

57. And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto 
them, A prophet is not without honour, save in his own 
country, and in his own house. 

58. And he did not many mighty works there because of 
their imbelief. 

" He warn't that set up that He couldn't stoop down 
And work in the country for folks in the town, 
And I'll warrant He feh a bit pride like I've done 
At a good job begun. 

" The parson he knows that I'll not make too free, 
But on Sundays I feel as pleased as can be 
When I wears my clean smock and sets in a pew 
And has thoughts not a few. 

" I think of as how not the parson hissen, 
As is teacher and father and shepherd of men, 
Not he knows as much of the Lord in that shed 
Where He earned His own bread. 



A.D. 28. 

Autumn. 
BY THE SEA 
OF GALILEE 

NEAR 
CAPERNAUM. 

MIDDLE OF 

SECOND TEAK. 

THE YEAR OF 

DEVELOPMENT. 

THE 

CARPENTER'S 

SON. 



" And when I goes home to my missus, says she, 
* Are you wanting your key ? ' 

For she knows my queer ways and my love for the shed 
(We've been forty years wed). 

" So I comes right away by mysen with the Book, 
And I turns the old pages and has a good look 
For the text as I've found as tells me as He 
Were the same trade with me. 

" Why don't I mark it } Ah, many says so ! 
But I think I'd as lief, with your leave, let it go. 
It do seem that nice when I fall on it sudden. 

Unexpected, you know." — Anonymous. 

Quoted in Speer's The Man Christ Jesus. 

Reference. See on ii. 23. Murillo's picture of The Angels in 
the Kitchen, 

Library. — " Blessed be Drudgery," by W. C. Gannett ; Browning's 
poems, "The Boy and the Angel." 



26S SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : I-3 



CHAPTER XIV. 



A.D. 29. 

March. 

THIRD YEAR, 

THE TEAR OP 

WORKING AND 

TEACHING. 

DEATH OP 
JOHN THE 
BAPTIST. 



1. At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of 
Jesus, 

2. And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist ; he 
is risen from the dead ; and therefore mighty works do shew 
forth themselves in him. 

3. 1 For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and 
put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife. 

2. This is John the Baptist ; he is Risen from the Dead.— 
The Roman poet Persius illustrates by Herod "the effect of 
superstitious fear in marring all the pleasures of pride and luxurious 
pomp." The memory of his crime doubtless haunted him, as 
Banquo's ghost haunted Macbeth with its silent horror — 

" My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, 
And every tongue brings in a several tale, 
And every tale condemns me for a villain." 

— Shakespeare. 

Compare Lady Macbeth walking in her sleep. " All the per- 
fumes of Arabia cannot sweeten this little hand." 



Library — Hood's poems, " Eugene Aram " ; Classical Diction- 
ary, "The Furies." 

Haunted Men.— "How Herod was haunted by the ghost of his 
sin — recall the witness of Abel's blood from the ground against 
Cain ; and the self-reproaches of Joseph's brethren, when the 
memory of their sin came upon them in after years ; and the story 
of the man who, to gain an inheritance, flung his brother into the 
sea, and, ever after, when he looked upon water, saw his brother's 
dead face staring up from the depths. There is one stone in the 
floor of an old church m Scotland which stares out at you blood-red 
from the gray stones around it. The legend tells of a murder com- 
mitted there, and of repeated fruitless attempts to cover the tell-tale 
color of that stone. Morally, the legend is true ; every dead sin 
sends its ghost to haunt the soul of the guilty." — H. C. Trumbull. 



XIV : 1-3 MATTHEW 269 



A.Do 29. 

March. 
THIKD TEAR. 

DEATH OF 
JOHN THE 
BAPTIST. 



Shakespeare represents Richard III. as seeing a 
vision in his sleep just before his last battle, in 
which appear the ghosts of those whom he had 
murdered. One by one they come, rehearse the 
crimes he had committed upon them, and cry, 
'• Despair and die. Let me sit heavy on thy soul ►f 
to-morrow." 

Nero was haunted by the ghost of his mother, whom he had put 
to death. Caligula suffered from want of sleep, being haunted by the 
faces of his murdered victims. Every one knows Victor Hugo's 
beautiful poem, " La Conscience," the story of Cain fleeing away 
before the eye of God. 

The old Greek stories of Prometheus with the gnawing vulture. 
The Furies of classic mythology " are commonly represented as 
brandishing each a torch in one hand and a scourge of snakes in the 
other." 

Library. — Hawthorne's "Mosses from an Old Manse," Vol. II., 
"The bosom serpent," where the chief character continually ex- 
claims, '' It gnaws me." 

John Huss' Dream. — "When John Huss lay in prison, con- 
demned to be burned alive as a heretic, he dreamed that the images 
of Christ painted on the walls of his chapel of prayer were obliterated 
by the pope. The dream greatly afflicted him. The next day he 
dreamed that several painters were employed in restoring the 
images in greater number and increasing brilliancy. Their work 
completed, a large concourse of people surrounded them and 
shouted, " Now let the pope and bishops come ; they will never be 
able to efface them again." The people of Bethlehem, where he 
had labored, greatly rejoiced, and he was a partaker in their joy. 
Speaking to a faithful friend of this dream, he said : " I hold this for 
certain, that the image of Christ shall never be effaced. They have 
wished to destroy it, but it shall be painted again in the hearts of 
men by painters abler than myself. The nation which loves Jesus 
Christ will rejoice thereat, and I, awakening from the dead, and 
reviving as it were from the grave, shall thrill with great joy." Then 
he went joyfully to the stake, where soon afterward Jerome of 
Prague was burned by the same persecuting power. A century 
passed away, during which the witnesses for Christ were everjrwhere 
silenced, and His image seemed about to be obliterated, and under 



270 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 4-6 

4. For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. 

5. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because 
they counted him as a prophet. 

6. But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before 
them, and pleased Herod. 

Leo X„ the triumph of the papacy was celebrated by a feast. Then 
came Luther, the morning star of the Reformation, followed by 
numerous reformers, who renewed the image of Christ in far brighter 
and more enduring colors in the hearts of multitudes. Pope 
Adrian, Leo's successor, wrote in a " brief " to the diet at Nurem- 
berg : ' The heretics, Huss -and Jerome, appear to have come to life 
again in the person of Martin Luther.' " 



4. John said Unto him, It is not Lawful. 

Bishop Latimer and Henry VIII. — "Bishop Latimer once dis- 
pleased Henry VIII. by a sermon he preached at court, and the king 
commanded him to recant the next Sunday. But when he rose to 
preach, he prepared his sermon thus : ' Hugh Latimer, dost thou 
know to whom thou art this day to speak } To the high and 
mighty monarch who can take away thy life if thou offend. There- 
fore take heed how thou speak a word that may displease.' But, as 
if recalling himself, ' Hugh, Hugh, dost thou know from whence 
thou comest, upon what message thou art sent, and who is it that is 
present with thee ? Even the great and mighty God, who is able to 
cast both body and soul into hell forever. Therefore be sure that 
thou deliver thy message faithfully.' He then confirmed and urged 
v/ith more earnestness the offending truths he had spoken the week 
before. But Henry was wiser than Herod, and embraced the 
preacher, thanking God for a man in his kingdom who dared to deal 
so faithfully with him." — Foster, Cyclopedia of Illustrations, 938. 



A Contrast. — " John acted a very different part from that of the 
judges of Persia in the time of Cambyses. That madman of a 
monarch wished to marry his sister ; and he demanded of the judges 
whether there were any Persian law that would sanction such a 
marriage. They pusillanimously answered that they could find no 
such law, but they found another. That the monarch of Persia was 
(It liberty to do whatsoever he pleased" (Herodotus, HI., 31), — Sckaff, 



XIV : 7-9 MATTHEW 271 



A.I>. 29. 

March. 
THIRD YEAR. 

DEATH OF 
JOHN THE 
BAPTIST. 



7. Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatso- 
ever she would ask. 

8. And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, 
Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. 

9. And the king was sony : nevertheless for the oath's sake, 
and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be 
given her. 

The Courage of John. — i. Luther, when pressed to stay away 

from the Diet at Worms, where he was to be tried for heresy, said 

to the messenger, " Go, tell your master that, though 

1 , ,. , M , •' . Luther. 

there should be as many devils as there are tiies on its 

roofs, I would enter it." And, again, of his mortal enemy, Duke 

George, " If I had business at Leipzig, I would ride into Leipzig, 

though it rained Duke Georges for nine days running." 

2. Mahomet, when his uncle, Abu Thaleb, pressed him to be silent, 
and not anger the chief people by his utterances, 
answered that if the sun stood on his right hand and 

the moon on his left, ordering him to hold his peace, he could not 
obey. 

3. Socrates, when condemned to death, said, " Athenians, I will 
obey God, rather than you ; and if you would let me go, 

and give me my life on condition that I should no more 

teach my fellow-citizens, sooner than agree to your proposals, I 

would prefer to die a thousand times." — Plato, Apology, p. 23. 



7. A Kingdom for a Dance.— Herod was willing to give away half 
of his kingdom for the sight of an immoral dance. Poor fool ! But 
how many in our day give away the whole kingdom of their souls, 
with health and hope, prosperity, peace, and goodness,— yea, the 
whole kingdom of heaven, — for the paltry price of a glass of wine ; 
the pleasure of the table ; the gratification of passion or pride ; the 
acquisition of a little money. The race of Esau still thrives who sell 
their birthright for a mess of pottage. 



9. The King was Sorry, Nevertheless he Commanded. — 
" Such a state of partial conviction is not unusual. Many of us know 
quite well that, if we would drop some habit, which may not be very 
grave we should be less encumbered in some effort which it is our 
interest or duty to make ; but the convictiori has not gone deeper than 



272 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 10-12 



10. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. 

11. And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel : and she 
brought it to her mother. 

12. And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and 
told Jesus. 

the understanding. Like a shot which has only got halfway through 
the armored skin of a man-of-war, it has done no execution, nor 
reached the engine-room where the power that drives the Hfe is. 
In more important matters such imperfect convictions are widespread. 
The majority of slaves to vice know perfectly well that they should 
give it up. 

" Such a condition is one liable to unrest and frequent inner con- 
flict. Truly, he is ' much perplexed ' whose conscience pulls him one 
way, and his inclinations the other. There is no more miserable 
condition than that of a man whose will is cleft in twain, and who 
has a continual battle raging within. Conscience may be bound and 
thrust down into a dungeon, like John, and lust and pride may be 
carousing overhead, but their mirth is hollow, and every now and 
then the stern voice comes up through the gratings, and the noisy 
revelry is hushed, while it speaks doom." 

— Rev. Dr. Madaren, in Sunday-School Times. 



IO-I2. Beheaded John in Prison. — " His death was not prema- 
ture ; it was the closing of a full and ripened life. His life had been a 
rapidly burning lamp which has given all the greater light in a dark 
place. I can illustrate by the burning of candles in compressed 
air in submerged caissons. When the railroad bridge was being 

built across the Mississippi River at St, Louis a man told 
^R^idr* me he went down in one of these caissons eight hundred 

feet below the surface of the water. The bad air was 
driven back by compressed air in the caisson. This dark place was 
lighted with burning candles. These candles burned very rapidly 
and gave a corresponding light. They could not be blown out by a 
human breath. So it was with the life of this man. It burned fast 
under the pressure of a great love." — Rev. Geo. Candee. 



Success. — A short life which fulfils its mission is a success. 
" That life is long which answers life's great end." — Young. 



XIV:lO-I2 MATTHEW 278 



We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not ► 

breaths ; 
In feelings, not in figures on a dial. He most 

lives 
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the 

best.'* — Bailey. 



A.D. 29. 

March. 
THIRD YEAR. 

DEATH OF 
JOHN THE 
BAPTIST. 



He liveth long who liveth v/ell ; 

All other life is short and vain ; 
He liveth longest who can tell 

Of living most for heavenly gain.' 



John's life was a success. His character was 

" Rich in experience that angels might covet. 
Rich in a faith that has grown with the years." 

His work was completed. When the new graft has become well 
started, the old branches are best cut away. 



Latimer and Ridley. — " The martyrdom of John is his strong- 
est sermon, heard and felt everywhere. He still precedes Christ in 
every revival, as repentance must precede forgiveness." His mar- 
tyrdom set this light on a hill for all the world to see. It rang the 
bell hidden in a tower, so that all men must hear his message. So 
Bishop Latimer, bound to the stake, said to Bishop Ridley, " We 
shall light such a candle, by God's grace, in England this day, as I 
trust shall never be put out again." 



John really lives in the life of Christianity ; he triumphs in its 
triumphs. 

" Speak, history ! Who are life's victors ? Unroll thy long annals 

and say. 
Are they those whom the world calls the victors who won the 

success of the day ? 
The martyrs, or Nero } The Spartans who fell at Thermopylae's 

tryst. 
Or the Persians and Xerxes ? His judges, or Socrates ? Pilate 

or Christ ? " 



274 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV: 13,14 



13. H When Tesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place 
apart : and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the 
cities. 

14. And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with com- 
passion toward them, and he healed their sick. 

Library. — J. R. Miller's " Making the Most of Life," showing the 
success of the short life of Harriet Newell. 



Hymn. — The beautiful hymn, " For all the Saints who from Their 
Labors Rest." 

II. Given to the Damsel. — " In front of an old ruined abbey in 

a secluded glen in Europe there is a stone statue of a headless man, 

holding in a plate in his hand his own head. It is the statue of the 

martyr John the Baptist. One of the story-writers of France has 

represented the cruel and revengeful daughter of Herodias, who 

asked such fiendish pay for dancing, as put under the same curse 

as the ' wandering Jew ' of Jerusalem, doomed to live and wander for 

centuries without growing old or hoping to rest or die, 

Herodias hearing ever the cry behind her, ' Go on, go on.' After 

statue of eighteen centuries of weary wandering, she comes at last, 

John. by accident, to the foot of this statue, and sees in the 

dead face a look of sympathy and pity. As she glances 

into the spring at her side, she perceives with unspeakable joy that 

she is rapidly growing old, and almost in a moment her hair has 

turned white. She can now hope for pardon and the longed-for rest 

of death. This legend is but a picture of the remorse of unpardoned 

sin follov/ing us for centuries in this world and the other. Only the 

pardon of Christ can give such a heart hope and rest." 

— W.F. Crafts. 



Reference. — 14. Chapters iv. 24 and viii. 16. 



" He did kind things so kindly ; 
It seemed His heart's delight 
To make poor people happy 
From morning until night. 



XIV: 15-17 MATTHEW 275 



15, T[ And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, 
sajring, This is a desert place, and the time is now past ; send 
the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and buy 
themselves victuals. 

16, But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart ; give ye 
them to eat. 

17, And they say unto him. We have here but five loaves, 
and two fishes. 



A.D. 29. 

April. 

NEAR 

BETHSAIDA. 

THIRD TEAR. 

FEEDING 
OF THE 5000. 



He always seemed at leisure 
For every one who came ; 

However tired or busy, 
They found HIM just the same." 



15. This is a Desert Place. — A large part of the world is like 
this desert, full of people perishing of hunger. They 
need eternal life ; they need to have their souls nour- '^^® 
ished and strengthened ; they need to be satisfied with Multitudes, 
love, and forgiveness, and hope, and faith, and courage ; 
they are dying for want of the bread of life. 



17. But Five Loaves and Two Fishes. 

A modern miracle. 

Once, in the shadowy hour of eve, 
I heard a voice that said : 
*'My children hunger, and faint, and die; 
Give of thy store of bread." 
And I answered (unto the presence nigh 
Of the God-man who asked of me) : 
*' Only these five small loaves have I, 

And these fishes, dear Lord, for thee!" 

"Only these five small loaves, dear Lord, — 

And so many cry out for food ! 
Meagre my store to meet the want 

Of this hungering multitude. 
So few, so small, and so poor — dear Lord, 

In this darkening close of day, — 
Better for thee to speak the word 

And send the people av/ay." 



276 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV: l8 

i8. He said, Bring them hither to me. 

Ah ! but the eyes of Christ were kind. 

And bis words fell tenderly — 
As he looked afar o'er the weary throng, 

" Bring them hither to me ! 
Bring the loaves and the fishes small. 

Nor blush for thy humble store ; 
The hungry are many that faint and fall. 

But the love of a Christ is more ! " 

So, trembling, I laid my little all 

At the feet of the gentle Lord — 
And watched the myriads great and small 

Who waited upon his word. 
And oh ! how my heart throbbed fast with joy. 

And my soul in rapture thrilled, 
For, out of the humble gift I brought, 

The multitude all were filled. 

— Sunday-School Times. 

BARLEY LOAVES. 

Only five barley loaves ! 

Only two fishes small ! 
And shall I offer these poor gifts 

To Christ, the Lord of all ? 
To him whose mighty word 

Can still the angry sea, 
Can cleanse the lepers, raise the dead ? 

He hath no need of me. 

Yes, he hath need of thee ; 

Then bring thy loaves of bread ; 
Behold, with them, when Jesus speaks, 

The multitudes are fed. 
"Two hundred pennyworth," 

Saith one, "had not sufficed." 
Ah, true ! what is abundance worth 

Unless 'tis blessed by Christ ? 



XIV : 19 MATTHEW 277 



19. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the 
gjass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking- 
up to heaven, he blessed and brake, and gave the loaves to his 
disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. 



A.». 29. 

April. 

NEAR 

EETHSAIDA. 

THIRD TEAR. 

FEEDING 



OP THE 5000. 



Only one talent small, 

Scarce worthy to be named ; 
Then use it in his strength ; 

Truly he hath no need of this ; 
O soul, art thus ashamed ? 

He gave that talent first ; 
Thereby — thou know'st not — he may work 

A miracle at length. 

Many the starving souls 

Now waiting to be fed. 
Needing, though knowing not their need 

Of Christ, the living Bread. 
Oh, hast thou known his love } 

To others make it known ; 
Receiving blessings, others bless ; 

No seed abides alone. 



And when thine eyes shall see 

The holy, ransomed throng. 
In heavenly fields, by living streams, 

By Jesus led along, 
Unspeakable thy joy shall be. 

And glorious thy reward, 
If, by thy barley loaves, one soul 

Has been brought home to God. — Anon. 



-►J. 



19. Commanded the Multitude to Sit Down.— "There is a 
danger "for many men, if not for all, in the perpetual outgo of energy 
which so much of our life involves. 'AH is going out, nothing is 
coming in'; is not that the dism.ay and the despair 
which settles down upon many an experience as it t. *f ^ 
attains to middle life? Existence comes to feel to 
many of us like a great river, which is always flowing with 
unbroken force downward to the sea. It never stops. It is always 



278 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : I9 

pushing its waters outward. It gives the sea no chance to flow 
up into it, So is the ever energetic life of one whose sole idea 
is to exert influence, to make himself felt in some result. How often 
the river must long to pause ! How often it must become aware 
that its impetuous rush is losing for it the richness of the great, deep 
salt sea ! How often the busy life of man becomes aware that some- 
where round it there is richness which it does not get because it 
opens outward only and not inward ! How often it desires to 
pause and grow receptive and take into itself the richness which it 
now is keeping out ! 

" Some day the headlong current of your life was stopped. The 
river ceased to flow. The waves stood still, and then the ocean 
which the flowing of the river had kept out, poured up and in, and 
there were sacreder emotions in the old channels and deeper hopes 
and fears beating upon the well-worn banks. The day when your 
great bereavement came ; the day when, being weak and ill, you did 
not go to your business ; those were the days when God was feeding 
you. You lost the sense of being one who was to act, and you were 
one to whom God was to do something. 

" How sacred and rich afterwards become the rooms where such 
experiences have taken place! The stream may start again and 
push the intrusive ocean once more back into its bed, but the river 
channel can never quite forget its overflow. The house may go 
back to its common uses and its doors open and shut upon the com- 
ers and goers of ordinary life, but it will never be quite the same that 
it was before the day on which the unseen presence filled it. 

" I want you to notice, with regard to this blessedness of a pause 
in the outflowing energy of life, that it applies not merely to what 
we call our secular occupations, but to our sacred and religious ones 
as well. The disciples as well as the stragglers from Capernaum — 
perhaps the busy disciples more than anybody else in all the crowd — 
must have needed Christ's call to sit down and be fed. The more 
earnestly you are at work for Jesus, the more you need times when 
what you are doing for him passes totally out of your mind, and the 
only thing worth thinking of seems to be what he is doing for you." 

— Phillips Brooks, Sermons. 



Orderly Arrangement. — They sat down in orderly ranks and 
files. Order is the law of heaven, as we notice in the arrangement 
of the most beautiful things God has made — the flowers and leaves, 



XIV : 20 MATTHEW 279 



20. And they did all eat, and were filled : and they took up 
of the frag:ments that remained twelve baskets full. 

the Stars of heaven, the diamonds, crystals, and 
other jewels, which in the Revelation are used to 
describe the heavenly city. 



A.B. 29. 

April. 

NEAR 

BETHSAIDA. 

THIRD TEAR. 

FEEDING 
OF THE 5000. 



He Blessed— 

" Twas seed time when he blessed the bread, 
'Twas harvest when he brake." 



Singing Grace. — On an old teapot that belonged to the Wesleys 
is found the following grace, by John Cennick : 

" Be present at our table. Lord ; 
Be here and everywhere adored ; 
These mercies bless, and grant that we 
May feast in paradise with Thee." 



19, 20. He gave the Loaves to His Disciples, and the Disci- 
ples TO THE Multitude remained Twelve Baskets full. 

The fountain that gives what it receives is fresh, and clear, and 
beautiful. The bog that receives and does not give is malarious, 
foul, reptile-haunted. Cities grow rich by receiving and giving. 
The centers of commerce by taking in goods, working them over, 
and giving them out again, always gather wealth. It is this that 
makes the difference in value between pasture land and city lots. 



Exporting Religion. — " When the Massachusetts legislature 
were discussing the propriety of granting an Act of incorporation to 
a missionary society, one of the members remarked that it seemed 
to be an arrangement for exporting reUgio7t, when in fact we had 
none to spare. He was answered that religion was a commodity of 
which the more we exported the more we had left. The man who 
strives to shut up fire in order to preserve it will soon find he has 
nothing left but ashes. We get the best fire by throwing it open, 
that others may share its warmth. We get the purest water for our- 
selves by allowing it to flow on and bless others." 

—Rev. H. L. Hastings, D.D. 



280 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 20 

Library. — Trench's poem of the " Two Sacks of Wheat." One 
man kept his in his house, and it rotted away. The other sowed 
his broadcast, and reaped a harvest. 



Illustrations of this giving are seen in teaching, in giving com- 
fort, in all Christian work. 

Gain by Giving. — " As the widow's oil increased, not in the 
vessel, but by pouring out ; as here the barley bread multiplied, not 
in the whole loaf, but by breaking and distributing; and as the grain 
bringeth increase, not when it lieth on a heap in the garner, but 
when scattered upon the land, so spiritual graces are best improved, 
not by keeping them together, but by distributing them abroad." 

— Sa7iderson. 

Library. — " God's way of Blessing," a poem in the " Uplands of 
God." 

Daily Providence proves God.—" There is an Eastern fable of 

a boy having challenged his teacher to prove to him the existence 

of God by working a miracle. The teacher, who was a priest, got a 

large vessel filled with earth, wherein he deposited a kernel in the 

boy's presence, and bade him pay attention. In the 

Fable, place where the kernel was put a green shoot suddenly 

The Tree appeared, the shoot became a stem, the stern put forth 

Grown m jg^^^g ^^^ branches, which soon spread over the whole 

an Hour. ^ 

apartment. It then budded with blossoms, which, drop- 
ping off, left golden fruits in their place, and in the short space of 
one hour there stood a noble tree in the place of the little seed. 
The youth, overcome with amazement, exclaimed, * Now I know 
that there is a God, for I have seen his power ! ' The priest smiled 
at him, and said, 'Simple child, do you only now believe? Does 
not what you have just beheld take place year after year, only by 
a slower process ? But is it the less marvelous on that account ? ' " 

— Krummacher. 

"The miracle of the loaves was a sudden putting forth of God's 
bountiful hand from behind the veil of his ordinary providence ; the 
miracle of the harvest is the working of the same bountiful hand, 
only unseen, giving power to the living grains to drink the dew and 



XIV: 21 MATTHEW 281 



21. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, 
beside women and children. 

imbibe the sunshine, and appropriate the nourish- 
ment of the soil during the long bright days of 
summer. I understand the one miracle in the 
light of the other." 



A.D. 29. 

April. 

XEAU 
EETHSAIDA. 
THIRD TEAR. 

FEEDING 
OF THE 5000. 



— Macmzllan's Bible Teachings i?t Nature, p. 92. 



20. The Fragments that Remained.— Science says, " Gather 
up the fragments." Many of the most useful things are now made 
out of what was once thrown away. The former refuse in making 
kerosene oil is now worth more than the oil. The waste of logs is 
made into paper, and so of many things. 



Saving Unseen Waste of Gold.— In the United States Mint, 
at Philadelphia, I was told that the putting of a grated floor upon the 
room where certain parts of the work were done brought a saving 
of $80,000 in a year, from the little specks of gold that floated off 
during the working of the metal. They fell upon the floor, were 
swept up, washed out, and remelted. 



Saving Gold Waste at Waltham Watch Factory. — "The 
New York representatives of the Waltham Watch Company for 
many years carried on the manufacture of watch cases on three 
floors of a building, melting from $1,000 to S3.000 worth of gold 
every day. A few months ago they moved to another place, and on 
, their departure had the floors taken up and carried to smelting and 
refining works. There were 60,000 square feet of lumber that had 
been undisturbed for nineteen years. The wood was burned to 
ashes, which were sifted, and the gold was then extracted by a chem- 
ical process. The result realized by the watch firm was $67,000." 

— Congregationalist. 



Valuable Refuse. — " Any one who has visited the coal regions 
could not have failed to remark the great quantities of culm, mount- 
ains of it, to be seen on every hand. It had been laboriously ex- 
tracted from the bowels of the earth, only to be thrown aside as 



282 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV: 21 

waste. It formed a good percentage of the product of the mines, 
yet everybody conceded that it was useless. Now scientists have a 
different tale to tell. They look at this immense quantity of culm 
— enough of it to belt the globe with a pile twenty feet high — and 
declare that from forty to seventy per cent, of it is available for fuel, 
or, in other words, that there is enough marketable coal in these 
waste heaps to cover the State of Rhode Island to a depth of 125 
feet. As we read of the steps being taken to utilize this vast de- 
posit of cast-away wealth, our thoughts turned naturally to the 
unmeasured force in youthful Christianity, which the church had 
considered as unavailable until the modern young people's move- 
ment rescued it ' for Christ and the church.' And there are other 
unused and disregarded stores of power that are rich in possibility 
— waste moments of time, unsounded capabilities for service, unno- 
ticed needs in individuals and masses, infinite stores of human sym- 
pathy and love. Join the modern world in heeding the divine com- 
mand, ' Gather upon the fragments.' " — Golden Rule. 



" There is no waster in the universe like a sinner." He wastes 
infinite opportunities, infinite love, infinite blessings, a soul of infi- 
nite worth." 

Reference. See under ix. 9, the story of the stained-glass win- 
dow from waste pieces of glass. 



And were Filled.— "The philosophic Hamerton tells us the 

story of a woman who worked in a cotton factory in one of the great 

manufacturing towns in Lancashire, and who, in an excursion, went 

^ ^ for the first time to the coast. When she caught the 

"Enough of ,. ,. r,T-ic> 1 1- 

Something." earliest ghmpse of the Irish Sea, the expanse laying 
out before her eyes looking like the limitlessness of 
the ocean in its rush and roll of billows, she exclaimed, as she drew 
one boundless breath of freshness and glory, ' At last, here comes 
something there is enough of ! ' Those who come to the boundless 
abundance of the Gospel, who look out on the wide, fathomless sea 
of infinite love, may say, with a thousand fold more emphasis and 
delight, 'At last, here comes sojncthing there is enough of ! ' 

" ' Enough for each, enough for all, 

Enough forevermore. ' " — C. S. Robznson, LL.D. 



XIV : 22, 23 MATTHEW 283 



22, ^ And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get 
into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he 
sent the multitudes away. 

23. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up 
into a mountain apart to pray : and when the evening was 
come, he was there alone. 



A.l>,29. 

April. 

SEA OF 

GALILEE. 

THIRD TEAR. 
JESUS 

WALKING 

ON THE 

SEA. 



22. Jesus Constrained his Disciples to go before Him unto 
THE Other Side. — "Jesus will not have them to be clinging only 
to the sense of his bodily presence — as ivy, needing always an out- 
ward support — but as hardy forest trees which can brave a blast ; 
and this time he puts them forth into the danger alone, 
even as some loving mother-bird thrusts her fledglings '^^^t^^s^*^*® 
from the nest, that they may find their own wings, and 
learn to use them. And by the issue he will awaken in them a con- 
fidence in his ever-ready help." — Trench. 



I see not a step before me as I tread the days of the year, 

But the past is still in God's keeping, the future his mercy shall 

clear ; 
And what looks dark in the distance may brighten as I draw near. 

So I go on not knowing. I would not if I might ; 

I would rather walk in the dark with God than go alone in the 

light ; 
I would rather walk with him by faith than walk alone by sight." 



" I know not where his islands lift 
Their fronded palms in air, 
I only know I cannot- drift 
Beyond his love and care." — Whittier. 



Inner Peace in a Storm. — " In crossing the Atlantic we were 
overtaken by a gale. Upon the deck the noise of the waves howling 
and roaring and foaming was almost deafening. But when I stepped 
into the engine-room everything was quiet. The mighty engine was 
moving with quietness and stillness, in striking contrast with the 
roar without. It reminded me of the peace that can reign in the 
soul while storms and tempests are howling without." 

— Rev. C. G. Finney. 



284 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV: 24-3 1 

24. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves : for the wind 
was contrary, 

25. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the 
sea. 

26. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, say- 
ing, It is a spirit ; and they cried out for fear. 

27. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying. Be of good cheer ; it is I ; be 
not afraid. 

28. And Peter answered him and said. Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee 
on the water. 

29. And he said. Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he 
walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 

30. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid ; and beginning to sink, 
he cried, saying. Lord, save me. 

31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto 
him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt ? 

24. The Wind was Contrary. — Mr. Spurgeon saw on a country 
weather-cock what he thought was a strange motto, " God is Love," 
and asked his friend if he meant to imply that the divine love can be 
fickle as the wind. " No," said he, " this is what I v^^2lV\.— whichever 

way the wind blows, God is love; through the cold 
The Weather north wind, the biting east wind, still God is love, as 

much as when the warm, genial breezes refresh our fields 
and flocks." God loves men so that he uses every possible means 
for their salvation. The greatest is his love in Jesus Christ. He 
sends joys and sorrows both, to bring us to our Saviour. 



31. Jesus Stretched Forth his Hand. — A man once dreamed 
that he was in a deep pit, sinking fast in the mire — feet, knees, body, 
neck, gone down beneath the surface — when he heard a voice, ""Look 
up." Looking up he saw a star ; and, while gazing at it, he began to 
rise. Then congratulating himself on his escape, he turned his eyes- 
from the star to himself ; and immediately he began to sink again. 

All efforts of his own to rise but sank him deeper; and, 
***Live *" when almost gone, he again heard the voice, "Look up." 

Then once more gazing at the heavenly star, he began 
to rise higher and higher, till he was almost free; then, turning to 
help himself, and to remove the mire clinging to him he forgot to look 
up, and again he sank, Once more the voice came, '• Look up ; for 
only ivhilc you look you rise J' And looking steadfastly, he rose from 
the mire, and was saved. 



\ 



XIV: 32-35 MATTHEW 285 

, , ^ 



A.I>. 29. 

April. 

SEA OF 

GALILEE. 

THIRD YEAR. 
PETER 

SINKING 

ON THE 

SEA. 



32. And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. 

33. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped 
him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. 

34. 1[ And when they were gone over, they came into the 
land of Gennesaret. 

35. And when the men of that place had knowledge of him, 
they sent out into all that country round about, and brought 
unto him all that were diseased ; 

Wherefore Didst thou Doubt. — "There was once a good 
woman who was well known among her circle for her simple faith 
and her great calmness in the midst of many trials. Another woman, 
living at a distance, hearing of her, said, ' I must go and see that 
woman, and learn the secret of her strong, happy life,. 
She went, and accosting the woman, said, ' Are you the \^ a^Great 
woman with the great faith } ' ' No,' replied she, ' I God. 

am not the woman with the great faith, but I am the 
woman with the little faith in the great God.' " 

— C. S. Robinson, LL.D. 

A TALK WITH ST. PETER. 

" O Peter, wherefore didst thou doubt ? 
Indeed, the scud flew fast about. 
But he was there whose walking foot 
Could make the wandering hills take root ; 
And he had said. Come down to me. 
Else had thy foot not touched the sea. 
Christ did not call thee to thy grave — 
Was it the boat that made thee brave } 

** Easy for thee who wast not there. 
To think thou more than I couldst dare ! 
It hardly fits thee, though, to mock, 
Scared as thou wast at railway shock ! 
Who saidst this morn, ' Wife, we must go ; 
The plague will soon be here, I know ! * 
Who, when thy child slept — not to death — 
Saidst, * Life is now not worth a breath ! * 

" Too true, great fisherman ! I stand 
Rebuked of waves seen from the land ! 



286 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIV : 36 

36. And besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment : and as 
many as touched were made perfectly whole. 

Even the lashing of the spray, 
The buzzing fears of any day, 
Rouse anxious doubt lest I should find 
God neither in the spray nor wind ; 
But now and then, as once to thee. 
The Master turns and looks at me, 

" And now to him I turn : My Lord, 
Help me to fear -nor fire nor sword ; 
Let not the cross itself appall — 
Know I not thee, the Lord of all ! 
Let reeling brain nor fainting heart 
Wipe out the sureness that thou art ! 
Oh, deeper thou than doubt can go. 
Make my poor hope cry out, ' I know.* 

Then when it pleases thee to say. 

Come to my side ' — some stormy way, 

My feet, atoning to thy will 

Shall, heaved and tossed, walk toward thee still ; 

No leaden heart shall sink me where 

Prudence is crowned with cold despair ; 

But I shall reach and clasp thy hand, 

And on the sea forget the land." 

— George Macdojiald, in Sunday Magazine. 



Reference. — 36. "Touch the hem of his garment." See on 
chapter ix. 20. 



XV:I-I3 MATTHEW 287 



CHAPTER XV. 



1. Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of 
Jerusalem, saying, 

2. Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the 
elders ? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread . 

3. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also 
transgress the commandment of God by your tradition ? 

4. For God commanded, saying. Honour thy father and 
mother : and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the 
death. 



A.B. 29. 

Spring. 
CAPERNAUM. 

THIRD TEAR. 

TRADITIONS 
OF THE 
ELDERS. 

^ 4 



5. But ye say. Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, // is a gift, by 
whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me ; 

6. And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made 
the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. 

7. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, 

8. This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with 
their lips ; but their heart is far from me. 

9. But in vain they do worship me, teaching/br doctrines the commandments of 
men. 

10. *!! And he called the multitude, and said unto them. Hear, and understand : 

11. Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man ; but that which cometh 
out of the mouth, this defileth a man. 

12. Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees 
were offended, after they heard this saying ? 

13. But he answered and said. Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not 
planted, shall be rooted up. 

2. Tradition of the Elders. — Haydon, the artist, wishing to 

make a picture of Christ entering into Jerusalem, had Landseer 

paint the ass on which Christ rode, but himself painted 

the Master. But the animal was done so much better ^^^^"^ ' 

Picture. 

that it drew the attention of all to the ass, and away 
from the Christ. So do we, when we exalt forms, ceremonies, 
creeds, traditions, above the religion of the heart and the written 
word of God. 

Reference. — 7. " Hypocrites." See under xxiii. 13, etc. 



13. Every Plant, etc. — ^Just as the owner of a garden pulls up 
all the weeds and leaves only the plants which he has planted, and 
for which the garden exists. 



288 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV : I4-22 



14. Let them alone : they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead 
the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. 

15. Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. 

16. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding ? 

17. Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into 
the belly, and is cast out into the draught ! 

18. But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart ; 
and they defile the man. 

19. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, 
thefts, false witness, blasphemies : 

20. These are the things which defile a man : but to eat with unwashen hands 
defileth not a man. 

21. TI Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 

22. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried 
unto him, saying. Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David ; my daughter is 
grievously vexed with a devil. 

14. If the Blind lead the Blind. — "A farmer was lost in the 

snow-storm on a prairie of the far West. Night coming on, and 

after he was almost frantic from not knowing which way to go, his 

sleigh struck the rut of another sleigh and he said: 'I will follow 

this rut, and it will take me out to safety.' He hastened on until he 

heard the bells of the preceding horses, but, coming up, he found 

that that man was also lost, and, as is the tendency of those who 

are thus confused in the forest, or on the moors, they 

^ ^.'^. ® were both moving in a circle, and the runner of the one 
Praine. =* 

lost sleigh was following the runner of the other lost 

sleigh round and round. At last it occurred to them to look at the 
north star, which was peering through the night, and by the direc- 
tion of that star, they got home again. Those who follow the 
advice of this world in time of perplexity are in a fearful round, for 
it is one bewildered soul following another bewildered soul, and only 
those who have in such time got their eye on the morning star of 
our Christian faith can find their way out, or be strong enough to 
lead others." — T. DeWitt Talmage. 



Reference. — 19. " Out of the heart." 



" Pure gold loses nothing in the testing for alloys ; the diamond 
shines all the more clearly for being rid of the rough surface which 
hid its light." — H. C. Trianbull. 



22-28. Faith Developed by Difficulties.—" (i) We see little 
of the power of water in the dcwdrops or gently flowing river ; but 



XV : 23-28 MATTHEW 289 



A.D. 29. 

Spring. 
CAPERNAUM. 

THLRD TEAR. 
HEALING 

OF THE 

SYEO- 

PHENICIAN 

WOMAN. 



23. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came 
and besought him, saying, Send her away ; for she crieth 
after us. 

24. But he answered and said. I am not sent but unto the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel. 

25. Then came she and worshipped him, saying. Lord, help 
me. 

26. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the chil- 
dren's bread, and to cast it to dogs. 

27. And she said, Truth, Lord : yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from 
their master's table. 

28. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith : be it 
unto thee even as thou ^^'ilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very 
hour. 

when the waters meet with great rocks or masses of ice in their 
channel, then they rise up, by means of these obstacles, into terrible 
power, as a Niagara or spring floods. (2) So steam, passing 
unimpeded into the air, is but a feeble mist ; but when it is confined 
within the iron barriers of the engine, it develops a force that can 
move the machinery of the largest factories, and carry the largest 
ships across the ocean, in the face of wind and storm. (3) When 
the current of electricity is to be developed from an unnoticed flow 
into a great light, it must be made to pass through a smaller wire 
and a poor conductor. The obstacles bring out the brilliant electric 
light and the most intense heat. 

" The darkness in the pathway of man's life 
Is but the shadow of God's providence. 
By the great Sun of Wisdom cast thereon ; 
And what is dark below is light in heaven." 

— Whit tier, "Tauler's Lesson of Faith" 



Library. — "The Delayed Blessings* Office," in the booklet 
" Expectation Corner." 

27. Dogs. — " Kwapioig, diminutive: Little dogs. — The picture is of 
a family meal, with the pet house-dogs running round the table." 

— M. R. Vincent. 

" There is a touch of infinite beauty and graciousness in the 
expression, which it is easy for us to miss. The word He uses for 
' dogs ' is not the word which was used for the wild creatures which 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV 129-3 1 



29. And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee ; and 
went up into a mountain, and sat down there. 

30. And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, 
Wind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus feet ; and he 
healed them : 

31. Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the 
maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see : and they glorified the 
God of Israel. 

go about in troops in Eastern cities, and which were regarded by 

the Jews with great disgust. It is the word for 'little dogs,' living 

in the house and with the family, and lying under the 

Little table at meals: The woman springs to it. Even the 
House-Dogs. ,. , , , , , , , r 1 • , • 

little dogs under the master s table are fed with pieces 

of the children's loaf. They are not outside. They, too, have a 
place in the family. If Christ puts it so, then she and her people 
have a place, though a humble one, in the house of the Master of 
all. The children may be fed first ; but they, too, are to be remem- 
bered and blessed. Christ gave her a better place in the house than 
she hoped for ; indeed, she supposed that she had no place at all." 

—R. W. Dale, D.D, 
Reference. See on iv. 23-25, and viii. 16. 



30. Great Multitudes Came unto Him. — " I think it is not 

fully recognized that every system of medicine prevailing in the 

East is connected with sorcery, demonolatry, and witchcraft, not to 

speak of brutal and torturing treatment, and the thousands of lives 

annually imperiled and lost. There is a close connection between 

medicine and extraordinary superstition and wicked- 

__ ®® ^. ness; and the sorcerer is summoned on almost all occa- 
Healing in 

the East, sions, or the wizard, or some prophetess, who professes 
openly to being in league with spirits of the other world. 
Sickness is supposed to be the work of demons, and the sorcerer is 
called in with his wand. And, therefore, it is a necessity to send out 
medical missionaries, for so long as the only healer of the body is 
the man who is in supposed connection with evil spirits, so long 
must the people remain in darkness and in the shadow of death. 
And I think that it is a great argument in favor of medical missions, 
that the only medical systems that these people know are systems of 
demonolatry and sorcery." — Isabella Bird Bishop, in late address 
before the English Church Missionary Society, 



\ 



XIV : 32-37 MATTHEW 291 

^ 



A.D. 29. 

Su miner. 
DECAPOLIS. 

FEEDING 
OF THE 4000. 



32. t Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I 
have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with 
me now three days, and have nothing to eat : and I will not 
send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. 

33. And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have 
so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multi- 
tude ? 

34. And Jesus saith unto them. How many loaves have ye ? And they said, Seven, 
and a few little fishes. 

35. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. 

36. And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, 
and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. 

37. And they did all eat, and were filled : and they took up of the broken meat 
that was left seven baskets full. 

38. And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. 
37. And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of 

Magdala. 

Pictures. — Dore's Vale of Tears; Christus Consolator, Plockhorst, 
Ary Scheffer; Healing the Sick, Schonherr, Hoffmann, Zimmermann. 

" Kind hearts are here ; yet would the tenderest one 
Have limits to its mercy, — 
God has none." 

— Adelaide Proctor^ in Legend of Provence. 



Reference, — 32-39. See on xiv. 15-21, " Feeding of the 5,000." 



292 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI:i-II 



CHAPTER XVI. 



A.D. 29. 

Sumtner. 
THIRD TEAR. 

CAPERNAUM. 

THE STGNS. 
OF THE 
TIMES. 



1. The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempt- 
ing desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven. 

2. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye 
say, It will be fair weather : for the sky is red. 

3. And in the morning. It will be foul weather to day : 
for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can 
discern the face of the sky ; but can ye not discern the signs of ^' "^ 
the times ? 

4. A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign ; and there shall no 
sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and 
departed. 

5. And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take 
bread. 

6. ^ Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the 
Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 

7. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, // is because we have taken no 
bread. 

8. Which when Jesus perceived he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason 
ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread t 

9. Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, 
and how many baskets ye took up ? 

10. Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye 
took up ? 

11. How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning 
bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees > 

3. Why Cannot ye Discern ?— Rebelais' witches were very far 
and sharp sighted when abroad, but at home they took out their eye 
and laid it one side, so that they could see nothing near by. How 
many are blind to God's presence near them, to his providence in 
daily matters, to saints in their own homes, to opportunities close at 
hand, to the signs of the times on every side. 



Reference. — See poem under xii. 44, " * O Where is the Sea, 
the Fishes Cried." 

Reference. — 4. " Sign of Prophet Jonas." See xii. 40. 
Reference.— 6. "Leaven." See on xiii. 33. 






XVI: 1 2- 1 8 MATTHEW 293 



A.D. 29. 

Summer. 

THIRD YEAR. 

CESAREA 

PHILIPPI. 

KEYS OF THE 
KINGDOM. 



12. Then understood they how that he bade them not be- 
ware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Phari- 
sees and of the Sadducees. 

13. H When Jesus came into the coasts of Cesarea PhiHppi, 
he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the 
Son of man, am ? 

14. And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist ; '^ '^ 
some, EHas ; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 

15. He saith unto them. But whom say ye that I am ? 

16. And Simon Peter answered and said. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the liv- 
ing God. 

17. Ajid Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona : for 
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 

18. And I say also unto thee. That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build 
my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 

13. Whom do Men say that I am. — " If you are one of a num- 
ber of passengers on an ocean steamer, and the cry is sounded that 
the vessel is sinking, but that a stanch and commodious boat is at 
your service if you will take to it, everything for your safety depends 
on what you think of that boat. If you think there is 
no danger where you are, you will not look at the boat Knowing 
as really needed by you. If you recognize your danger, ig'^gafe^^ 
but think that the proffered boat is no more trustworthy 
than the sinking steamer, you will not look at the boat as worthy of 
your confidence. Refusing to accept the boat as both essential and 
sufficient, you will be lost with the sinking vessel, because of your 
opinions about the boat." 

— H. C. Trumbull, LL.D., in Sunday-School Times. 

See also Nansen's account of his boat's trustworthiness. 



18. Thou art Peter (Petros), and Upon this Rock (Petra) I 
WILL Build my Church.— Peter had the making of a rock in him. 
" It may illustrate this naming of Peter to refer to a sandstone, in 
Skye, mentioned by Dr. MacCulloch, which may be molded like 
dough when first found ; so simple minerals, which are rigid and 
hard as glass in our cabinets, are often flexible and soft 
in their native beds ; this is the case with asbestos, sahl- ^^^* ^*p"® 
ite, tremolite, and chalcedony, and it is reported also to \^^, 
happen in the case of the beryl. The marl recently de- 
posited at the bottom of Lake Superior, is soft, and often filled with 



294 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 1 9 



19. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever 
thou Shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose 
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 

fresh-water shell ; but if a piece be taken up and dried it becomes 
so hard that it can only be broken by a smart blow of the hammer. 
So for good or evil every man's character becomes consolidated by 
time, as did Peter's after Pentecost." — R. R. Doughterty, Ph.D. 



" Thus with something of the seer 
Must the moral pioneer 

From the future borrow ; 
Clothe the waste with dreams of grain. 
And on the midnight sky of rain 
Paint the golden morrow." 

— Whzttzer's Barclay of Ury. 



The Gates of Hell. — irvlai aiSov, gates of Hades, adov is from a, 
not, and l^tlv, to see, and signifies the invisible land, the reabn of the 
dead. Death personified. The gates being the place where business 
was often transacted and assemblies held, " is an Orientalism for 
the court, throne, power," as " Sublime Porte " (Gate) is a name of 
the Ottoman Court. The power of Death cannot prevail against 
the Church ; it is indestructible. 

\/ 19. Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. — " God has bestowed 
the keys of the kingdom of nature upon man. To man in his igno- 
rance and his incompetence. He gives the key of a universal domin- 
ion, and bids him enter upon the earth and take possession of it. 
(0\.s one is put into a house with many doors, all locked against him, 
and is given a bunch of keys and bid to find his way to the scattered 
and secreted treasures, so God put humanity into the world, setting 
man housekeeping, and bidding him discover for himself the wealth 
which was stored up for his use. There were gold and 
Keys of silver and iron in the hills ; there was the potent fertility 
of Nature. ^^ myriad infant seed growths in'the soil; there was light- 
ning in the clouds to run his errands, and, tamed and 
domesticated, to do the work of illumination for him ; there was a 
giant chained in the water, whom the fire would at once set loose 
and yet harness to do his bidding. But all these treasures were 



XVI : 20 MATTHEW 295 



20. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no 
man that he was Jesus the Christ. 



A.D. 29, 

Summer. 

THIRD TEAR. 

CESAREA 

PHILIPPI. 

KEYS 

OF THE 

KINGDOM. 



under lock and key, and God fitted no key to any. 
He has left man to grope his way toward civilization 
and all that civilization brings with it. ' I give 
you the keys ; discover for yourself.' It is an awful 
responsibility, but it is a magnificent trust ; and though man has 
been long in finding his way to the secreted treasures, modern civi- 
lization bears its witness that the trust which the Father reposed in 
his child has not been reposed in vain. Long and slow and painful 
has been the process. But the process itself has been the making 
of a manhood to which all civilization is witness, and which is worth 
far more than all else which civilization has brought. 

" But the kingdom of God, which is in nature, in the State, and in 
the church, is most of all in the individual conscience and life. To 
each soul personally God gives the keys of his own destiny and bids 
him unlock life's closed doors ; puts in his hands the rud- 
der and bids him steer his bark ; gives him the tools and ^.^^\ 

° Kingdom 

bids him model his own character. This is the solemn- of the Soul. 

est fact of all, for this is an undivided and unshared 
responsibility. I may throw off upon others the blame for the fail- 
ure of State and the sins of Church ; but for my own decisions re- 
specting my own life I am alone responsible." 

— Lyman Abbott, LL.D., in Outlook. 



1/19. Whatsoever Thou shalt Bind on Earth shall be Bound 
IN Heaven. — " Binding and loosing " refer to " the legislative and 
judicial authority of the apostles." Their decisions under the Holy 
Spirit shall be ratified and confirmed. 



\r Fable of the Garden. — " A father whose wealth is in ships and 
warehouses and railroads, but who has an acre garden attached to 
the country homestead, summons his boys one spring as he is 
going to Europe, and says to them, ' I put this garden in your 
charge ; spend what you will ; cultivate according to your own best 
judgment ; send the product to the market ; and account to me for 
sales and expenditures when I get home.' * But, father,' say the 
boys, • what shall we sow ? ' 'I cannot tell you ; you must judge for 



296 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 21 



21. ^ From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he 
must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and 
scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. 

yourselves.' * Where shall we sell ? ' * Find out for yourselves.' 
' What prices ought to we to get ? ' ' Learn for yourselves.' ' But, 
father, we know nothing about gardening; we shall make dreadful 
mistakes.' ' No doubt you will,' replies the father, ' and you will 
learn by your mistakes ; and it is your learning, not the gardening I 
care for.' 'But, father, we are afraid we shall bankrupt you.' The 
father laughs and replies, ' ' You cannot bankrupt me, if you try, 
with a summer's gardening on an acre plot.' ' But, father,' finally 
protest the boys, ' we are afraid that when you come back and see 
how poorly we have done you will find fault with us and be sorry 
that you gave us such a trust.' And the father catches up a piece 
of paper and writes upon it : 

" * Know all men by these presents that I hereby appoint my boys, 
James and 'John, my true and lawful attor7ieys, to do all things that 
may be necessary iji the cultivation and charge of my acre garden, and I 
hereby ratify and confirm beforehand whatever they may do.' 

"And he signs it, hands it to them, and goes his way. 

" So God gives to us, his children, in this summer day out of eter- 
nity which we call life, and on this little acre plot of ground out of 
the universe which we call the world, the responsibility and the lib- 
erty involved in the charge of our own destinies, and with this he 
gives power of attorney promising beforehand to ratify and confirm 
whatever we do in loyal service to him and in loyal allegiance to his 
name and honor." — Lyman Abbott, D.D. 



21. Rise Again the Third Day.— "The crucifix with the dead 
Christ obscures our faith. Our thoughts rest not upon a dead, but a 
living Christ." — Bishop Westcott. 

" The empty cross is to be preferred as being a symbol, symboliz- 
ing the resurrection as well as the death of the Redeemer. He has 
borne the cross, and passed from it forever." — Professor Millzgan. 

" The cross, stained with the blood drops of our Redeemer is the 
most sacred symbol of our religion. But it is precious, not because 
it points downward to death and the grave, but because it ever 
points upward to the living Christ." — Professor Briggs, 



XVI : 22, 23 MATTHEW 297 



A.D. 29. 

Summer . 
THIRD YEAR. 
CESAREA. 
PHILIPPI. 
PETER'S 

REBUKE. 



22. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, 
Be it far from thee, Lord : this shall not be unto thee. 

23, But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, 
Satan : thou art an olfence unto me : for thou savourest not the 
things that be of God, but those that be of men. 

22. Peter began to Rebuke Him, because the 
picture Jesus drew of his immediate future was so 
contradictory to the expectations of Messiah as a great and glorious 
king. 

The Seven Fears Changed to Joys.— In the "Light of Asia," 
the king dreamed troublous dreams about his son. Prince Sid- 
dartha, and seven great and terrible fears came before him in vision. 
The flag of Indra was rent by a rushing wind, ten huge elephants 
shook the earth with their tread, a mighty drum pealed like a thun- 
derstorm ; his son sat on a tower scattering gems, as if it rained 
jacinths and rubies, and all the world seized on these treasures. 
Every one was to the king a great fear. But a wise counselor showed 
him that every one of his fears was in reality a great joy. The rent 
flag was but the beginning of the new. The ten elephants were the 
ten great gifts of wisdom ; the tower was the growing of the true 
religion, and the gems were the truths his son would give to the 
world ; and the drum was the thunder of the preached word. 



\ 23. Get Thee behind Me, Satan. — Peter was a very imperfect in- 
strument for bringing in the Gospel, yet because he was sound and 
true at heart, and open to all good influences, he did a great work 
for his Master. 



There's a fleck of rust on a flawless blade — 

On the armor of price there's one : 
There's a mole on the cheek of the lovely maid — 

There are spots upon the sun. 

But the blade of Damascus has succored the weak, 

The shield saved a knight from a fall : 
The mole is a grace on my lady's cheek — 

The sun, it shines for all." —S. A. Walker. 



298 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 24 



24. T[ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him 
deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 

Library. — Mrs. Gatty, in her "Parables from Nature." "Imper- 
fect Instruments," gives a beautiful illustration of God's use and our 
use of imperfect instruments in doing his work. 



24. Deny Himself and take up His Cross. — In " The Cross- 
arer," a little book published by the American Tract Society, is a 
series of illustrations from French pictures, showing the right and 
the wrong ways of bearing the cross. One picture repre- 
Ways of sents the disciple as sawing off a part of his cross. He 
Cross. would bear the cross, but the one Christ gave him is too 
heavy. Another is dragging his cross behind him with 
a cord, being ashamed of it. Another is worshipping his cross, 
crowning it with flowers, instead of bearing it ; praising religion, 
but not practising it. At last one comes with his Master before 
him, bearing his cross, while the disciple walks in the Master's foot- 
steps and carries his cross exactly as his Master does. 



Theresa's Cross. — " Theresa had a little ebony cross, the ends of 
which were tipped with gold. At one time the cross-piece became 
loose, and she begged her father to repair the cross. ' That I will 
do very willingly,' said her father, 'and by means of it will try to 
teach you a lesson how you may live in this world and no affliction 
or duty prove a cross to you. See, without this cross-piece the 
longer piece is not a cross ; only when the cross-piece is added is a 
cross formed. So it is in every trial which we call a cross. The 
longer piece represents God's will. Our will, when it desires to 
cross God's will, is represented by the cross-piece. Each cross you 
are called upon to bear, take from it the cross-piece, — your will, — and 
it will no longer prove a cross to you." — Independent, 



Self-denial one Aspect of Religion. — "This is only one 
meaning of rehgion. If I should say of a garden, ' It is a place 
fenced m,' what idea would you have of its clusters of roses, and 
pyramids of honeysuckles, and beds of odorous flowers, and rows of 



XVI : 25, 26 MATTHEW 299 

' ^ 



25. For whosoever \\-ul save his life shall lose it : and who- 
soever will lose his life for my sake shall find it 

26. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in ex- 
change for his soul ? 



A.D. 29. 

Smnmer. 

THIRD TEAR. 

CESAREA 

PHILIPPI. 

SAVrS'G OR 
LOSING LIFE. 



biossoming shrubs and fruit-bearing trees ? If I * * 

should say of a cathedral, ' It is built of stone, cold 
stone,' what idea would you have of its wondrous carvings, and its 
gorgeous openings for door and window, and its evanescing spire ? 
Now, if you regard religion merely as self-denial, you stop at the 
fence and see nothing of the beauty of the garden ; you think only 
of the stone, and not of the marvelous beauty into which it is 
fashioned." — H. IV. Beecher. 



Library. — Poems, "The Cross-Bearer"; Bishop Huntington's 
Sermons, "The Cross a Burden or a Glory"; Gotthold's Emblems, 
" The Christian Without a Cross." 



25. Save his Life, shall Lose it.— "In Rochester, N. Y., there 
is a little picture hanging in an art gallery which represents a young 
man riding very swiftly on a horse. Out in front of him is floating 
what seems to be an angel, holding in her hands a 
crown. The young man is reaching out his hands to '^^^ Crown 

u • . V A X.' c . n Over the 

get the crown. He is tramplmg under his feet flowers Precipice, 
and helpless children. He almost touches the crown, 
but just one more leap of the horse and he will go over the precipice 
in front of him. Suppose he does reach the crown, he will have it in 
his hands only for a moment, and then he is lost. That is the way 
it is with many who are bound to have pleasure, whether they have to 
sin in obtaining it or not. They just reach out their hand and 
catch hold of the pleasure, and, like the bubble, it bursts, and they 
have ruined themselves." — Rev. C. H. Tyndall, in the Illustrator. 



^26. What shall a Man Give in Exchange for his Soul? — 
There is a Russian legend of one who entered a diamond mine in 
search of great riches. He filled his pockets with great gems, and 
then threw them away to make room for larger ones. At length he 



300 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 26 

became very thirsty, but there was no water there. He 

Russian sought to find the way out, but was hopelessly lost in 

Mines" ^^^ intricate mazes. He heard the flow of rivers, but 

they were rivers of gems ; and he hastened forward at 

the sound of a waterfall, but it was a cascade of jewels. He was very 

rich in precious stones, but he was dying of thirst, and his riches 

were worse than useless. He had lost himself, and perished amid 

his treasures. 

A Foolish Exchange.— There was an advertisement, in one of 
the daily papers, to this effect : " Wanted, a. nice cottage and 
grounds in exchange for a lot of choice liquors." Multitudes of 
drinking men have made such an exchange. Not only property, 
but happiness, home, the welfare of friends, character, prospects, 
everything, have they exchanged for intoxicating liquors. So men 
sell their characters and clear conscience for money, for honors, for 
pleasures. They sell their souls for the world, and find that they 
have sold themselves for naught ; as Esau for a mess of pottage 
and Judas for thirty pieces of silver. 



We barter life for pottage ; sell true bliss 

For wealth or power, for pleasure or renown ; 

Thus, Esau-like, our Father's blessing miss 
Then wash with fruitless tears our faded crown.' 



A man who gives himself up to this world is like a fly, not tasting 
of honey, but caught in its sweet embracot He has the honey, but 
it ruins him. 

A Foolish Barter. — " You wonder at the folly of that rude and 
naked savage who would barter a coronet of gold for small worth- 
less trinkets, and buy the wonders of a mirror, the tinkling of a bell, 
or the string of colored beads, with a handful of pearls, fit orna- 
ments of a crown. Yet what is that compared with the folly of him 
who, in exchange for the toys of earth, gives his soul." 

— Dr. Guthrie. 

A Contract with Satan. — " It is only a myth that a man ever 
signed in blood a real contract with Satan, exchanging his soul for 



XVI : 26 



MATTHEW 



301 



a short term of power in the realm of his craving 
or lust. But if Satan should be ready for such bar- 
gains, and should open an office for soul broker- 
age, all the police in the city would be needed to 
keep the people in line to wait their turn for a 
chance at a transfer." 

—H. C. Trumbull 



A.I>. 29. 

Summer. 

THIRD TEAR, 

CESAREA 

PHILIPPI, 

THE 

FOOLISH 

EXCHANGE. 



*t 



Library.— Goethe's "Faust," who sold himself to Satan for 
" Sodom apples, — gold that melts away in his hand, glory that 
vanishes like a meteor, and pleasure that perishes in the possession." 
" Shrouds have no pockets." 



Starved in His own Treasury. — "We are reminded of the 
luckless king of Persia who, when the Moslems overran his empire, 
and made him prisoner, was left to starve in his own treasury. All 
round that Persian monarch were heaped diamonds, and emeralds, 
and topazes, and pearls of inestimable value. Wherever he turned, 
he saw nothing except gold, and silver, and precious stones; but 
with the wealth of Ormuz and the East about him, the wretched man 
perished of hunger and thirst." 

—W.H. Stead. 

Library. — In his "Beyond the Dreams of Avarice," Walter Besant 
has stepped somewhat outside the conventional field of novel- 
writing, and given us a story in which the love element plays a com- 
paratively small and unimportant part. An old man dies and leaves 
an immense fortune gained in the "profession of Destruction 
and Ruin " ; no will can be found, and there are no known heirs. 
But immediately a number of heirs spring up, from England, 
Australia, America, and put in their claims to the fortune. They 
are almost all good, respectable, hard-working people of the higher 
middle class and of various professions. The story describes the 
effect which the expectation of the great fortune had upon the 
characters of these different claimants. In every case except that of 
stout Sir John, a subtle deterioration immediately began ; business 
was abandoned or else attended to in the most lifeless and per- 
functory manner; every thought was permeated by the demoralizing 
influence of the " great expectations " ; conscience was benumbed ; 
what was once considered to be wrong now appeared to be right, 
and life was passed in vain dreams of how the great fortune should 



302 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI: 2/ 

27. For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels ; and 
then he shall reward every man according to his works. 

be spent. Altogether it is a very graphic— and true — putting of the 
case. 

Jane Taylor's imaginary visitor from a star, and his views of the 
actions of men. 



Examples. — Jacob buying the birthright by fraud, and " when he 
had secured it, it seemed as if the mystic box of Pandora had been 
opened in his home, for every human ill was let flee into his life." — ■ 
Meyer. See the story as -told by Hawthorne in ''Paradise of 
Children" in his "Wonder Book." Judas selling his Lord for 
thirty pieces of silver, Peter denying his Lord to escape danger. 
The Sabine maiden betraying Rome for " what was on the soldiers' 



^ 27. He shall Reward, etc.— Macaulay in his essay on Milton 
says : " Ariosto tells a story of a fairy, who, by some mysterious law of 
her nature, was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of 

a foul, poisonous snake. Those who injured her during 
Ar OS s ^j^^ period of her disguise were forever excluded from 

participation in the blessings which she bestowed. But 
to those who, in spite of her loathsome aspect, pitied and protected 
her, she afterward revealed herself in the beautiful and celestial form 
which was natural to her, accompanied their steps, granted all their 
wishes, filled their houses with wealth, made them happy in love, and 
victorious in war." So what is done to Christ in his disguised and 
lowly form is a test of our character and of our love, and will be re- 
warded and blessed by him when he comes in his glory ; while those 
who reject him in his humility must come before his judgment-seat 
when he sits on the right hand of the power of God. 



A Visitor from Mars. — If some visitor from Mars to this earth 
should come in winter, having never seen a seed grow, and should see 
a beautiful seed put in the ground, he would feel that it was lost. 
But if one took him to a greenhouse and showed him the flower that 
grew from such a seed, his soul would rejoice, for he would see the 
true nature of the seed, and so could rejoice that it was planted. 



XVI : 2/ MATTHEW 303 



A.D. 29. 

Suinmer, 

THIRD YEAR. 

CESAREA. 

PHILIPPI. 

THE 

FOOLISH 
EXCHANGE. 



A Northern Legend.— Hall Calne, in the 
proem to " The Bondman," says that half his story- 
is founded on " a beautiful Northern legend of a 
man who loved a good fairy and wooed her and 
won her for his wife, and then found that she was 
no more than a woman after all. Grown weary, , 
he turned his back upon her and wandered away 
over the mountains, and there on the other side of a ravine from where 
he was he saw, as he thought, another fairy, who was lovely to look 
upon and played sweet music and sang a sweet song. Then his 
heart was filled with joy and bitterness, and he cried, ' Oh, that the 
gods had given me this one to wife and not the other ! ' At that, 
with mighty effort and in great peril, he crossed the ravine and 
made towards the fairy, and she fled from him ; but he ran and fol- 
lowed her and overtook her, and captured her and turned her face to 
his face that he might kiss her, and lo ! she was his wife! " So men, 
sometimes, wearying of heavenly vision of duty and the virtues that 
come through self-denial, find at last that duty and joy are one and 
the same. 

"'Joy is a duty,' so with golden lore 
The Hebrew rabbis taught in days of yore. 
And happy human hearts heard in their speech 
Almost the highest wisdom man can reach. 
But one bright peak still rises far above. 
And there the Master stands, whom name is love. 
Saying to those whom heavy tasks employ, 
* Life is divine, when duty is a joy.'" . ^ jj 



jiu^ 






Examples. — History and biography are full of examples. It is 
impossible to gain a blessed life by seeking self and pleasure as one's 
highest aim. Of all such it is true : 

" Ah, brother, have you not full oft. 
Found, even as the Roman did, 
That in Life's most delicious draught, 

Surgit amari alquid " 
(Something bitter comes unbid) ? 



304 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVI : 28 



28. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of 
death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. 

28. Some Standing here See the Kingdom of God. — 

The new kingdom of God would dawn, would come as the day- 
comes when the first rays touch the mountain tops, during the life- 
time of some of those who heard him. The day would not have 
come in its noontide glory, the new kingdom would not have been 
wholly there, but it would have come. The apostles 
^^'^New*^^ lived to see the marvelous day of Pentecost, when 
Kingdom. Christ began to come in his kingdom, and three thou- 
sand were converted in a day ; and some of them to see 
the end of the Jewish dispensation in the destruction of Jerusalem 
and the establishment of the Christian dispensation, with tens of 
thousands of disciples throughout the civilized world. This was 
the beginning of the second advent. Compare Mark ix. i ; Luke 
ix. 27. 



\ 



XVII : I, 2 MATTHEW 305 



CHAPTER XVII. 



1. And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John 
his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, 

2, And was transfigured before them : and his face did shine 
as the sun, and his raiment was white as the hght. 



A.I>. 29. 

Aututnn. 

THIRD YEAR. 

NEAR CESAREA 

PHILIPPI. 

THE TRANS- 
, ,, ^ ^ . . FIGURATION. 

Picture. — Raphael s Transfiguration, now in 
the Vatican, is the most celebrated and most beau- 
tiful of all pictures of the Transfiguration Scene. It probably stands 
first among all the paintings in the world. It was his last work, the 
consummate flower of his life. 

" The upper portion is not thinking of the lower, and the lower 
not being aware of the higher. It symbolizes, however, the short 
sightedness of mankind, that amid the trouble and grief of the 
lower picture, not a single individual, either of those who seek help, 
or those who would willingly afford it, lifts his eyes to that region, 
one glimpse of which would set everything right. One or two of 
the disciples point upward but without really knowing what abund- 
ance of help is to be had there." — Hawthorne s Note Book, Italy. 



Story of Raphael's Last Picture,— " The well-known story 
of Raphael's last picture will be of interest to tell the children. He 
always loved to paint scenes from the Saviour's life ; and his last 
work, on which he spent years of study, was upon the transfiguration. 
It was scarcely finished when he died. While he was sick, he had 
the picture hung in his sight, that his constant thoughts might be 
upon his glorified Saviour. When he was dead, the picture was hung 
above his lifeless body, where for days crowds came to honor his won- 
derful genius, as they looked with reverence at the dead artist and 
his wonderful picture of the Transfiguration of Jesus." 

— Faith Latimer. 



2. Transfigured. — fieTefj.op(i)0)drj, from fierd, denoting change or 
transfer, and fiop^ri,form regarded as the distinctive nature and char- 
acter of the object, and is distinguished from (T;t^«a, the changeable 
outward fashion. The word implies not merely a change of outward 



306 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : 2 

form, as when Satan took the appearance of an angel of light, but a 

real essential change. 'A foreshadowing or prophecy of 

fleured ^^^ ^^^^ iorm — his distinctive character — comes out in 

his transfiguration;' 'a revelation of Deity breaking 

out in that glorified face appealed to something deeper than sense,' " 

— M. 7?. Vincent, 
It was the true nature of Jesus, as described by Paul in Acts ix : 3, 
and by John in Rev. i : 13-16, shining through his flesh and his gar- 
ments, as by a light from within, as the sunlight shining through 
dull stained glass windows reveals the true nature of the picture. 



Those who had seen Christ only in his human form were like those 
who had seen only the seeds of the rose or the bulb of the lily, but 
had no vision of the blossoms which could grow out of them. 



Imagine a palace beautifully lighted within, but with closed blinds 
and drawn curtains. Then imagine its appearance to one without 
when the blinds and doors are thrown open, and the brilliance with- 
in bursts forth from every opening. 



Cathedral Windows. — Hawthorne compares Christianity to a 
grand cathedral with divinely pictured windows. Viewed from with- 
out, it is impossible to gain the slightest conception of the beautiful 
forms and radiant colors manifest to those who look at them from 
within. So it is with Christ. There is a glory in him not visible 
to those without, but revealed to those who dwell in his heart of 
hearts. 



The Lighted Cross. — The same may be illustrated by the glass 
cross upon the spire of a church near New York City, within which 
are placed gas pipes and jets. When unlighted, it is but a dark 
cross against the night skies ; but, when lighted, it glows with an 
exquisite beauty, and hints at the true glory of Christ and his 
cross. 



Transfigured. — " A light within a marble bust produces an 
effect no light without it can rival.' ' Flesh is translucent to inner 
light. Hold your hand before a candle. In this case it blazed 



XVII : 3 MATTHEW 307 



3. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias 
talking with him. 

through garments. A face is lighted by a thought, 
by a joy. Much more by him who is the Light of 
the world ! " — Bishop Warren. 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 

THIRD TEAR. 

NEAR CESAREA 

PHILIPPI. 

THE TRANS- 
FIGURATION. 



Dante, describing the angels he met in Paradise, says : 

" Another of those splendors 
Approached me, and its will to pleasure me 
It signified by brightening outwardly. 
As one delighted to do good ; 
Became a thing transplendent in my sight, 
As a fine ruby smitten by the sun." 

— Paradiso, Canto IX., 13-19. 

Jesus was a prince in disguise, and for once he threw off his out- 
ward guise and appeared in his own royal glory. 



Changes in Natural Objects.—" Alumina, common earth, can 
become Oriental ruby, topaz, amethyst, sapphire, or emerald. Silica 
can become jasper, opal, or Brazilian ruby. Charcoal can become 
diamond. Why not body become equally lustrous, — nay, luminous } 
That which is designed to be a temple of the Holy Ghost ought to 
be fit. It must be capable of such glory that John, not yet out of 
the body, falls to worship, and finds the object to be only one of his 
brethren the prophets. Old bodies do not need to be cast aside, but 
to have their super-amethystine capabilities brought out." 

— Bishop H. IV. Warren, LL.D., in Sunday-School Times. 

Compare (i) the shining of Moses' face (Ex. xxxiv. 29, 30). " The 
face of Moses had shone but as the moon, with a borrowed, reflected 
light ; but Christ's shone as the sun, with an innate, inherent light." 
— Matthew Henry. (2) The shining of Stephen's face (Acts vi. 15). 
The description of the glorified Christ in Rev. i. 13-16; "his eyes 
as a flame of fire," " his countenance as the sun shineth in his 
strength ; " and in Heb. i. 3, " the brightness of his (God's) glory, 
and the express image of his person." 



3. Moses and Elias Talking with Him.— The representatives 
of the Law, the Prophets and the Gospel were at one. 



308 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : 3 

Harmony Point Above.—'' It has been said, whether by poetry 
or science it matters not, there is a certain point in the upper air in 
which all the discordant sounds of the earth — the rattle of wheels, 
the chimes of bells, the roll of the drum, the laugh of the child, the 
moan of the beggar — meet and blend in perfect harmony." 

— Dr. William Adams, 

The harmony of the law, prophets, and gospel was made manifest 
by this scene. They were all parts of one whole, as trunk, limbs, 
flowers, and fruit are all parts of one tree. Here were representa- 
tives of " the whole family in heaven and earth." 

Thus Christians are nearest together in doctrine when nearest to 
Christ in heavenly experience. The best Christians differ least in 
essentials. The churches become one on the Mount of Transfigura- 
tion. The differences in the light of our little lamps are all absorbed 
in the radiance of the sun. 

So it is in our transfiguration experiences with Christ ; the diffi- 
culties of the great doctrines of grace vanish, and all become har- 
monious ; and Christians who rejoice in these lofty experiences 
together, though of many different denominations, yet become one 
in Christ Jesus. 

The Change to be Wrought in Us.— We obtain glimpses of 
the glory that awaits us. " He shall change our vile body, that it 
maybe like fashioned unto his glorious Body." "Then shall the 
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father." 
" We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we 
shall see him as he is." " As we have borne the image of the 
earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 

" They, too, were ' taken out of the same lump of polluted nature 
with ourselves ' ; but as the gem is dull and black in the darkness, 
but glows and burns and palpitates, restless with living splendor, 
when it drinks the sunbeam, so our poor souls, dull as they are and 
base with sin, may be transfigured into glory and loveliness, if, 
emptied of their lusts and selfishness, they lay themselves wholly 
bare to receive the effluence of God." — Farrar. 



Immortality. — We have illustrations of immortality in Moses 
and Elijah. They show that death does not end all. The ancients 
debated the question whether the relation of the soul to the body 
was that of music to the harp, — which ceases when the harp is shat- 



XVII: 3 MATTHEW 309 

tered ; or that of the rower to the boat, who sur- 
vives and sails over other seas, when his boat is 
dashed to pieces on the rock. Here the problem 
is solved. 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 

THIRD TEAB, 

NEAR CESAREA 

PHILIPPI, 

THE TRANS- 
FIGURATION. 



Transfigured Lives. — " Communion with 
Christ transfigures a life. Every one we meet 
leaves a touch upon us which becomes part of our 
character. Our lives are like sheets of paper ; and every one who 
comes writes a word, or a line, or leaves a little picture painted 
there."— 7. R. Miller. 

" If only we strive to be pure and true. 

To each of us all there will come an hour 
When the tree of life shall burst into flower, 
And rain at our feet a glorious dower 
Of something grander than ever we knew." 



" O Master, it is good to be 
Entranced, enwrapt, alone with thee ; 
Till we, too, change from grace to grace, 
Gazing on that transfigured face." — A. P. Stanley. 



Transfigured Water. — " A drop of water lay one day in a 
gutter, stained, soiled, polluted. Looking up into the blue of the 
sky, it began to wish for purity, to long to be cleansed, and made 
crystalline. Its sigh was heard, and it was quickly lifted up by the 
sun's gentle fingers — up out of the foul gutter, into the sweet air. 
Then higher and higher ; at length the gentle winds caught it and 
bore it away, away, and by and by it rested on a distant mountain- 
top, a flake of pure, white, beautiful snow. This is a little parable of 
what the grace of God does for every sinful life that longs and cries 
for purity."— 7. R. Miller, D,D. 



*' Wonderful the whiteness of thy glory ; 
Can we truly that perfection share } 
Yes, our lives are pages of thy story. 
We thy shape and superscription bear ; 



310 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII 14-14 



4. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us be here : 
if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles ; one for thee, and one for Moses, and 
one for Elias, 

5. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them : and behold a 
voice out of the cloud, which said. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased ; hear ye him. 

6. And when the disciples heard ?"/, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. 

7. And Jesus came and touched them, and said. Arise, and be not afraid. 

8. And when they had Hfted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. 

9. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell 
the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. 

10. And his disciples asked him, saying. Why then say the scribes that Elias must 
first come ? 

11. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and 
restore all things. 

12. But I say unto you. That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but 
have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man 
suffer of them. 

13. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. 

14. IT And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, 
kneeling down to him, and saying, 

Tarnished forms — torn leaves — but thou canst mend them, 

Thou thine own completeness canst unfold 
From our imperfections, and wilt end them — 

Dross consuming, turning dust to gold." 



Library. — J. R. Miller's "Making the Most of Life," "Trans- 
figured Lives " ; Goethe's " Tale of Tales," interpreted by Carlyle in 
one of his essays, where the fisherman's rough hut was transformed, 
by a light within from rough wood into solid silver, and from a com- 
mon hut into a temple of exquisite workmanship. 



4. It is Good for Us to be Here. 



9-14. They Came Down. — The disciples were not allowed to re- 
main on the Mount, nor did the heavenly visitants remain. The 
disciples were to take their heavenlv experience with them down 
into the sinful, suffering world below. 
Hich Expe- '^^^ blessing was not lost because the experience did 
riences not continue. The transfiguration was a power, a corn- 
Transformed fQrt^ a help all the rest of their lives. A deep experience 
in a Christian, a true revival in a church, is not lost be- 



XVII : 9-14 MATTHEW 311 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 

TUIRD TEAK. 

NEAR CESAREA 

PHILIPPI. 

THE TRANS- 
FIGURATION. 

^ 



cause it does not continue in this form. It blesses "i* 
all the remaining time, and one fails of his best 
usefulness unless he has had the transfiguration 
experience. 

Carlyle, speaking of the Reformation, says, 
" Once risen into this divine white heat of tem- 
per, were it only for a season and 7iot again, it 
(a nation) is henceforth considerable through all its remaining 
history. Nations are benefited for ages by being thrown 
once into divine white heat in this manner. And no Carlyle on 
nation that has not had such divine paroxysms at any ^atiou ' 
time is apt to come to much." So the transfiguration 
experiences help us all the rest of our lives. Revival heights bless 
us evermore ; and when they have passed away, and we have come 
down into the valleys, the blessings have not left us. 



No one can measure the blessing of a shower by the amount of 
water that remains on the surface, nor the fruit on a tree by the length 
of time the blossoms of spring abide on its boughs. 



The Legend Beautiful.— Only by descending from the mountain 
to the common daily life could the vision remain in their lives. In 
"The Legend Beautiful," in Longfellow's " Tales of a Wayside Inn," 
a monk had been longing and praying for a better life, and that he 
might see Jesus himself. At length, one day, the vision came, flood- 
ing the room with its radiant shining. While he was gazing entranced 
upon his Lord, the convent bell tolled the hour when it was his duty 
to go out and feed the poor. He hesitated, for he hated to leave 
the vision, and feared it would not remain for his return. Should 
he who, 

** Rapt in silent ecstacy 

Of divinest self-surrender, 

Saw the vision and the splendor, — 

Should he slight his radiant guest. 

Slight this visitant celestial 

For a crowd of ragged, bestial 

Beggars at the convent gate ? " 
But he heard the voice, — 

" * Do thy duty ; that is best ; 

Leave unto thy Lord the rest.* '* 



812 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVII : I $-24 



15. Lord, have mercy on my son ; for he is lunatic, and sore vexed : for ofttimes he 
falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. 

16. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. 

17. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long 
shall I be with you ? how long shall I suffer you ? bring him hither to me. 

18. And Jesus rebuked the devil ; and he departed out of him : and the child was 
cured from that very hour. 

19. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him 
out? 

20. And Jesus said unto them. Because of your unbelief : for verily I say unto you, 
If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove 
hence to yonder place ; and it shall remove : and nothing shall be impossible unto you. 

21. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. 

22. TI And while they abode in Galilee Jesus said unto them, The Son of man 
shall be betrayed into the hands of men : 

23. And they shall kiU him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And they 
were exceeding sorry. 

24. Tl And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money 
came to Peter, and said. Doth not your master pay tribute ? 

He fed the beggars, and, returning, found the vision still there 
" When the blessed Vision said, 
' Hadst thou stayed, I must have fied.' " 



Mountain Tops and Plains.—" God does not make the moun- 
tain tops to be inhabited ; they are not for the homes of men. We 
ascend the height to catch a broader vision of our earthly surround- 
ings, but we de not tarry there. The streams take their rise in these 
uplands, but quickly descend to gladden the fields and valleys be- 
low. We are to take these crystal waters to quench the thirst of 
others. Most are to descend to a commonplace life — to our farms, 
our shops, our study. I must soon take up the geological hammer 
and talk of fossils and skeletons. This is not a downfall, not a de- 
scent. Let life hold its true meaning and all duty becomes sacred." 
— Prof. Henry Driimmond in a Northfield Address, 

Reference. — 14, 15. Chapter viii. 24-30. 



20. Grain of Mustard Seed.— Small faith, but living, with large 
possibilities of growth. 

Reference. " Say unto this mountain, remove hence," etc. See 
on chapter xxi. 21. 

Reference, vii. 7-10, "Prayer." 



XVII : 25-2/ 



MATTHEW 



313 



25. He saith. Yes. And when he was come unto the house, 
Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon ? of 
whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute ? of 
their own children, or of strangers ? 

26. Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto 
him, Then are the children free. 

27. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to '^" 
the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first cometh 

up ; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money 
take, and give unto them for me and thee. 



A.D. 29. 

A uiumn. 

THIRD TEAR. 

NEAR CESARBA 

PHILIPPI. 

THE TRANS- 
FIGURATION. 



that 



25. Prevented Him. — ■jTpoe<pdacev, spoke before Peter had an oppor- 
tunity to answer the tax collector. " Prevented, in its older sense, 
to anticipate, get before, was a correct translation. Out of this grew 
the secondary meaning, to hmder " hy getting before another. 



314 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : I-3 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



A.I>. 29. 

Aututnn. 
GALILEE. 

THIRD TEAR. 

NEAR THE 
CLOSE OF THE 

GREAT 
GALILEAN 
MINISTRY. 



1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, 
Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? 

2. And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the 
midst of them, 

3. And said. Verily I say unto you. Except ye be converted, 
and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the king- 
dom of heaven. 

I. Who is the Greatest in the Kingdom 
OF Heaven ? — We learn from the other gospels that there had been 
a strife among the disciples on this question. 

The Self-Seeking Spirit leads to Satan's kingdom, not to 
Christ's. It is the spirit of hell, not of heaven. It begets evils in- 
numerable and sorrows unspeakable. " Fling away ambition ; by 
that sin fell the angels." Aut Ccesar aut mullus, '* To be 

Greatness first or nothing," leads to crimes and wars. It was Mil- 

-..'*, ® . ton's Satan who said, " Better to reign in hell than serve 
Kingdom of ° 

Heaven, in heaven. " How like a mounting devil in the heart 
rules the unreigned ambition." Whoever would be 
greatest in any kingdom must be greatest in the things which are 
the essential nature of that kingdom. Whoever would be greatest 
in the kingdom of literature must be great in literature, not in prize- 
fighting. So he that would be greatest in the kingdom of heaven 
must be greatest in love, in self-denial, in faith, in service, in purity, 
and all the other virtues which make heaven what it is. 



3. Except ye be Converted and Become as Little Chil- 
dren YE SHALL Not Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, — 
The same is true, in its degree, of the kingdom of Science. When 
men ceased to say what nature should do, and began like children 
to learn of nature what she was and what she was doing, the dawn 
of the kingdom of Science had begun. 

" Could every time-worn heart but see thee once again 
A happy human child among the homes of men. 
The age of doubt would pass, — the vision of thy face 
Would silently restore the childhood of the race." 



XVIII: 4 MATTHEW 315 



4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little 
child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 



A.D. 29. 

Aututnn. 
GALILEE. 

THIRD YEAR, 



WHO IS 

GREATEST 

IN GOD'S 

KINGDOM ? 



^ 



Picture. — " There is an old fresco in Florence, 
by Simone Memmi, representing in one view the 
church militant and the church triumphant. Long 
processions of wayfarers wind across the lower part 
of the scene in ascending lines to the centre of the 
canvas, where stands a platform supporting the gate of heaven. As 
the grown men and women step upon this threshold, they suddenly 
become of very small stature, and are now ' the little children ' whose 
is the kingdom of heaven. The guardian genius of the upper world 
standing outside the heavenly portal crowns each with a garland and 
hands him through the archway, where he is received by celestial 
companions with angels and archangels, who cluster in still rising 
ranks and fill the picture until their serried legions at last surround 
the throne at the very summit of the scene. The pictorial render- 
ing of a physical change typical of spiritual childlikness, though 
quaint, is striking." 

— Mrs. Merrill E. Gates, in Sunday-School Times. 



Humble Himself as this Little Child.— "In the old fable 
which the Hebrews used to teach their children about 
the fallen angels they said that the angels of knowledge, pabir^ 
proud and wilful, were cast down hopelessly into hell ; 
but the angels of love, humble and fearful, crept back once more into 
the blessed light and were welcomed home." 

— C. S, Robinson, LL.D. 



Humility, an entirely different thing from the hypocritical hu- 
mility of Uriah Heep, one of Dickens' characters. 



Figurehead or Screw. — The true disciple is always a learner; 
he is willing that others should seem to be leaders and bear the 
honors if only he can help do the work. He is willing to work on 
the foundations of the light-house beneath the water, while others 
hold the light to be seen of all. It is not the figurehead on the bow 
nor the flag at the masthead that makes the ship go, but the engine 
deep in the hold and the screw unseen beneath the water. Those 



316 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : 5, 6 



5. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 

6. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were bet- 
ter for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned 
in the depth of the sea. 

who can do nothing unless they are on the prow or carrying the 
light are great evils and misfortunes to the church. 



The Deadliness of Ambition Instead of Love. — " So far as 
you desire to possess rather than to give ; so far as you look for 
power to command instead of to bless ; so far as your own prosperity 
seems to grow out of contest or rivalry of any kind, with other men 
or nations ; so long as the hope before you is for supremacy instead 
of love, and your desire to be greatest instead of least, first instead 
of last, so long are you serving the Lord of all that is last and least, 
the last enemy that shall be destroyed, death ; and you shall have 
death's crown, with the worm coiled in it, and death's wages, with 
the worm feeding on them. Kindred of the earth shall you yourself 
become ; saying to the grave, * Thou art my father ' ; and to the 
worm, * Thou art my mother and my sister.' " 

— Ruskin, Modern Painters, Vol. V., Peace. 



Library. — 5. "A Little Child in My Name." Edward Everett 
Hale's " In His Name." 
Reference. See on chapter xix. 13, 14. 



6. Offend. — cKav^akiar^, not "give offence to," but cause to stumble, 
put a stumbling block in the way. The kindred noun is oKavdakov 
(skandalon, whence our words scandal d^rvA slander), "the stick in a 
trap on which the bait is placed, and which springs up and shuts 
the trap at the touch of an animal." Hence the word refers to 
causing children to stumble in the path of life, ensnaring them by 
temptations so that they are caught in the meshes of sin and Satan. 



The Broken Vase.— "The owner of the famous Wedgwood 
potteries, in the beginning of this century, was not only a man of 
remarkable mechanical skill, but a most devout and reverent 
Christian. On one occasion, a nobleman of dissolute habits, and an 
avowed atheist, was going through the works, accompanied by Mr. 



XVIII : 7 MATTHEW 317 



7. T[ Woe unto the world because of offences ! for it must 
needs be that offences come ; but woe to that man by whom the 
offence cometh ! 



A.». 29. 

Autumn. 
GALILEE. 

THIRD YEAR. 

OFFENCES. 

Wedgwood, and by a young lad who was employed , 

in them, the son of pious parents. Lord C 

sought early opportuiilty to speak contemptuously of relig'cn. The 
boy at first looked amazed, then listened with interest, and at last 
burst into a loud, jeering laugh. Mr. Wedgwood made no comment, 
but soon found occasion to show his guest the process of making a 
fine vase ; how with infinite care the delicate paste was moulded into 
a shape of rare beauty and fragile texture, how it was painted by 
skilful artists, and finally passed through the furnace, coming out 
perfect in form and pure in quality. The nobleman declared his 
delight, and stretched out his hand for it, but the potter threw it on 
the ground, shattering it into a thousand pieces. ' That was unpar- 
donable carelessness ! ' said Lord C , angrily. ' I wished to take 

that cup home for my collection ! Nothing can restore it again.' ' No. 
You forget, my lord,' said Mr. Wedgwood, ' that the soul of that lad 
who has just left us came innocent of impiety into the world ; that his 
parents, friends, all good influences, have been at work during his 
whole life to make him a vessel fit for the Master's use ; that you, with 
your touch, have undone the work of years. No human hand can bind 

together again what you have broken.' Lord C , who had never 

before received a rebuke from an inferior, stared at him in silence ; 
then said, 'You are an honest man,' frankly holding out his hand. 
' I never thought of the effect of my words.' " — Biblical Museum. 
Reference.—" Receiveth me," chapter x. 40. 



7. Woe to that Man by Whom the Offence Cometh. — The 
poet sings : 

*' For sadder sight than eye can know, 
Than proud bark lost, or seamen's woe. 
Than battle fire, or tempest cloud. 
Or prey bird's shriek, or ocean shroud, — 
The shipwreck of the soul." 

But there is one sadder sight, and that is the shipwrecking of 



318 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII: 8-1 1 



8. Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them 
from thee : it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having 
two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. 

9. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee : it is better for 
thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. 

10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say unto you, That 
in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. 

11. For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. 

Others' souls, holding out the false light that ruins others as well as 
ourselves. 

8. If thy Hand or thy Foot offend Thee.— The story of 
Archbishop Cranmer, who having recanted to save his life, afterward 
stood for the truth and was burned as a martyr ; while at the stake 
he held out his hand in the flames, saying, " This hand has offended ; 
this unworthy hand ! " 

References. — 8, 9. "Offend," chapter v. 28-30; "Hell fire, 
Gehenna," chapter v. 22, 

10. Take Heed that ye Despise not, etc. — "The Jews would 
not willingly tread upon the smallest piece of paper in their way, 
but took it up ; ' for, possibly,' said they, ' the name of God may be 
upon it.' Trample not on any; there maybe some work of grace 
there thou knowest not of. The name of God may be written on 
that soul thou treadest 0^^— Archbishop Lei'ghton. 



Picture, — Christ the Good Shepherd, Plockhorst, W. C. T. Dob- 
son, Parker, Molitor. ^ 

II. Come to Save that Which was Lost. — A black coal trans- 
formed into light and heat when touched with fire. A jewel rescued 
from the sewer. 

Redeeming that Which was Spoiled.—" * Even in the ruins of 
a soul there are divine elements, and so long as even a fragment 
remains God wants to give it still another chance.' * In Florence, 
one of the treasures of art admired by thousands of visitors is 
^ ^ Michael Angelo's representation in marble of the young 
Angelo's David. It is, indeed, a marvelous piece of sculpture. But 
Statue of the strangely winning thing in the story of that statue is 
David. ^1^^^ j^ ^^g ^j^^ stone's second chance. A sculptor be- 
gan work on a noble piece of marble, but, lacking skill, he only 



XVIII: II MATTHEW 819 



hacked and marred the block. It was then aban- 
doned as worthless and cast aside. For years it lay 
in a backyard, soiled and blackened, half hidden 
among the rubbish.' Then Michael Angelo found 
it and transformed it into his beautiful statue." 
— J. R. Miller, in Westmijtster Teacher. 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 
GALILEE. 

THIRD TEAR. 
SAVING 

THE LOST. 



BEAUTIFUL SNOW. 

" Once I was pure as the snow, but I fell, — 
Fell like the snowflake, from heaven to hell ; 
Fell to be trampled as filth in the street ; 
Fell to be scoffed at, derided, and beat. 
Pleading, 

Cursing, 

Dreading to die, 
Selling my soul to whoever would buy. 
Merciful God ! have I fallen so low ? 
And yet I was once like the beautiful snow. 
Father, mother, sisters, all — 
God and myself I have lost by my fall. 

" Helpless and foul as the trampled snow, 
Sinner, despair not ! Christ stoopeth low 
To rescue the soul that is lost in its sin. 
And raise it to life and enjoyment again. 
Groaning, 

Bleeding, 

Dying for thee. 
The crucified hung on the accursed tree. 
His accents of pity fall soft on thine ear. 
* Is there mercy for me ? Will he heed my weak prayer ? 
O God, in the stream that for sinners did flow. 
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow ! ' " 



Library.— Read whole poem in "Snowflake Album " (Am. Tract 
Society), and a part of the poem and story in Taylor's " The Lost 
and Found." 



320 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : 12 



12. How think ye ? if a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone 
astray, doth he not leave tlie ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and 
seeketh that which is gone astray ? 



12. Leave the Ninety and Nine. — " At a great gathering re- 
cently in Denver, Mr. Ira W. Sankey, before singing ' The Ninety 
and Nine/ which perhaps of all his compositions is the one that has 
brought him the most fame, gave an account of its birth. Leaving 
Glasgow for Edinburgh with Mr. Moody, he stopped at a news-stand 
and bought a penny religious paper. Glancing over it as they rode 
on the cars, his eye fell upon a few little verses in the corner of the 
page. Turning to Mr. Moody, he said, * I've found my hymn.' But 
Mr. Moody was busily engaged and did not hear a word. Mr. Sankey 
did not find time to make a tune for the verses, so he pasted them 
in his music scrap-book. One day they had an unusually impressive 
meeting in Edinburgh, in which Dr. Bonar had spoken with great 
effect on ' The Good Shepherd.' At the close of the address, Mr. 
Moody beckoned to his partner to sing something appropriate. At 

... _ first he could think of nothing but the Twenty-third 
Origin of is J 

Mr. Sankey's Psalm, but that he had sung so often ; his second 
Ninety and thought was to sing the verses he had found in the 
Nine. newspaper, but the third thought was, How could it be 
done when he had no tune for them ? Then a fourth thought came, 
and that was to sing the verses, anyway. He put the verses before 
him, touched the keys of the organ, opened his mouth and sang, not 
knovving where he was going to come out. He finished the first 
verse amid profound silence. He took a long breath and wondered 
if he could sing the second the same way. He tried it and suc- 
ceeded. After that it was easy to sing it. When he finished the 
hymn the meeting was all broken down — the throngs were crying 
and the ministers were sobbing all around him. Mr. Sankey says it 
was the most intense moment of his life From that moment it was 
a popular hymn. Mr. Moody said at the time that he had never 
heard a song like that. It was sung at every meeting and was soon 
going over the world. While traveling in the Highlands of Scot- 
land a short time later Mr. Sankey received a letter from a lady at 
Melrose thanking him for singing the verses written by her sister. 
That sister was Elizabeth C. Clephane. He wished to call it ' The 
Lost Sheep,' but Mr. Moody insisted upon calling it * Ninety and 
Nine' whenever he announced it." — Golden Rule. 



XVIII: 12 



MATTHEW 



321 



'' Have ye looked for sheep in the desert, 
For those who have missed their way ? 
Have ye been in the wild waste places, 
Where the lost and the wandering stray ? 
Have ye trodden the lonely highway ? 
The foul and darksome street ? 
It may be ye'd see in the gloaming 
The print of My wounded feet." 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 
GALILEE. 

THIRD TEAR. 

THE NINETY 
AND NINE. 



►5* 



Marvelous Love of God. — Some have strongly felt the objec- 
tion to the gospel, that it is not probable that the Son of the infinite 
God would leave all the measureless stars without redemption, and 
come to this little world, which is but a mote in the sunbeam com- 
pared with other worlds, and here become man and die for us, the 
almost invisible atoms in this obscure corner of the universe. But 
here the enigma is solved. Wherever the lost are, there he must go 
for them, The hearts of all the family go after the lost one. 

" Some years ago," says Dr. Hastings in The Christian, "the late 
Horace Mann, the eminent educator, delivered an address at the 
opening of some reformatory institution for boys, dur- 
ing which he remarked that if only ojie boy was saved ^*** *^** ^*^ 
from ruin, it would pay for all the cost and care and la- 
bor of establishing such an institution as that. After the exercises 
had closed, in private conversation a gentleman rallied Mr. Mann 
upon his statement, and said to him, ' Did you not color that a little, 
when you said that all the expense and labor would be repaid if it 
only saved oiie boy f ' 'Not if it was my boy, v/as the solemn and 
convincing reply." 



Garibaldi and the Lost Sheep. — "One evening in i86i, as 
General Garibaldi was going home, he met a Sardinian shepherd 
lamenting the loss of a lamb out of his flock. Garibaldi at once ^ 
turned to his staff, and announced his intention of scouring the 
mountain in search of the lamb. A grand expedition was organized. 
Lanterns were brought, and old officers of many a campaign started 
off full of zeal to hunt the fugitive. But no lamb was found, and 
the soldiers were ordered to their beds. The next morning Gari- 
baldi's attendant found him in bed fast asleep. The attendant waked 
him. The general rubbed his eyes, and so did the attendant, when he 
saw the old warrior take from under the covering the lost lamb, and 



322 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : I3-18 

13. And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that 
sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. 

14. Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these 
little ones should perish. 

15. *I[ Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault 
between thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 

16. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the 
mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 

17. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church : but if he neglect 
to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. 

18. Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven ; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 



bid him convey it to the shepherd. The general had kept up the 
search through the night until he had found it. Even so doth the 
Good Shepherd go in search of his lost sheep until he finds them." 

— Sunday-School Tvnes. 

10. Your Father which is in Heaven.—" If an angel were to 

fly swiftly over the earth on a summer morning, and go into every 

garden, — the king's, the rich man's, the peasant's, the child's, — and 

were to bring from each one the choicest, loveliest, sweetest flower 

that blooms in each, and gather them all in one cluster in his radi- 

r, ... c ant hands, what a beautiful bouquet it would be ! And 

God the Sum ., , _ .r , , , . 

of all love. " an angel were to fly swiftly over the earth mto every 

sweet and holy home, into every spot where one heart 
yearns over another, and were to take out of every father's heart, 
and every mother's heart, and out of every heart that loves, its holi- 
est flower of affection, and gather all into one cluster, what a blessed 
love-garland would his eyes behold ! What a holy love would this 
aggregation of all earth's loves be ! Yet infinitely sweeter and 
holier than this grouping of all earth's holiest affections is the love 
that fills the heart of our Father in heaven." — J. R. Miller. 
Reference. Chap. vi. 9, " Our Father." 



15. Between Him and Thee Alone. — Do not publish the wrong, 
orav;aken his pride to stand by his wrong. If you would put out a 
fire, do not scatter the firebrands everywhere. A little fire that 
could have been crushed with the foot may burn up a whole city. 



15. Thou hast Gained thy Brother. — By your kindly act you 
have made two good men instead of adding another bad to the bad, 



XVIII :lQ-22 MATTHEW 323 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 
GALILEE. 

THIRD TEAR. 
rORGlVENESS. 

THE TWO 
DEBTORS. 



19. Again, I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on 
earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done 
for them of my Father which is in heaven. 

20. For where two or three are gathered together in my 
name, there am I in the midst of them. 

21. Tf Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall 
my brother sin against me, and I forgive him ? till seven times ? 

22. Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee. Until seven 
times : but. Until seventy times seven. 

19. If Two of You Agree on Earth. — The Greek word for 

agree, Gv/j.(j)uvT/aovGiv, from ovv, with, together, and ^wv^, sound, voice 

sound together in harmony. From this word comes our symphony, a 

harmony of sounds, and " an elaborate instrumental com- „^ ^ 

.... ,1 r , ,- 1 The Symphony 

position, consisting usually of three or four contrasted, of Prayer. 

yet inwardly, related movements, as the allegro, adagio, 

the minuet and trio, or scherzo, and the finale in quick time." This 

is an excellent illustration of the harmony of different souls in varied 

circumstances, yet seeing one great object in the kingdom of God. 

Every true prayer-meeting is a symphony. 



20. Gathered Embers. — " A minister called upon a member who 
had been neglecting the week-night service, and went straight up to 
the fireplace in the sitting-room, and with the tongs removed a live 
coal from off the fire, and placed it on the hearth, then watched it 
while it turned from the red glow of heat to a black mass. The 
member in question carefully observed the proceeding, and then 
said, ' You need not say a single word, sir ; 77/ be there on Wednes^ 
day night' " — The Christian. 



Reference. — 21. "Forgive him." vi. 14. Especially " the prayer 
of the unforgiving man." 

22. Until Seventy Times Seven, that is, always as many times 
as he sins against us. Our hearts are like reservoirs, and outward oc- 
casions draw out whatever is within, and only that. If they are full 
of love, forgiveness, kindness, the desire to help, then no matter how 
often, seven times, or seventy times seven, some act of others calls 
forth the feelings of the heart, it will be met by love, forgiveness, 
and help. If hate or revenge is there, then hate or revenge will 
flow forth against the evil doer 



1 



324 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : 23-27 



23. T[ Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would 
take account of his servants. 

24. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed 
him ten thousand talents. 

25. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and 
his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 

26. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying. Lord, have pa- 
tience with me, and I will pay thee all. 

27. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, 
and forgave him the debt. 

Reversing the Text. — " Many men have given a new turn to an 
old text. In their own private * R. V.' of the New Testament they 
read : ' Whosoever speaketh a word or committeth a wrong against 
God, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever speaketh a word or 
committeth a wrong against me, it shall not be forgiven him.' " 

—R. W, Dale, LL.D, 

Reference.— 23-35. See on v. 7. 



24. Ten Thousand Talents. — 19 or 20 million dollars; or if a 
Greek talent about half as much. 

This represents the greatness of man's sin against God. One sin 
is high as heaven, for it strikes at the nature and the throne of God ; 
deep as hell, long as eternity, for its consequences have no end. 
Now multiply this sin by the number of sins you have committed, 
by the number of hours you have not loved God, and you will form 
some idea of the greatness of your debt of sin. 



25. Commanded Him to be Sold. — "In Palestine at the present 

day the laws which control debtors and creditors are arbitrary in the 

extreme. Creditors show little or no mercy, and debtors are thrust 

into prison or stripped of all they possess. The creditor, 

Debtors In j^y asking the government and paying money, can obtain 

soldiers to accompany him, so that he can terrorize over 

his poor debtor, or drag him to prison if he cannot pay. I believe 

the people of Palestine dread the tax-gatherer and the money-lender 

more than they do the cholera or the conscription for war. The 

farmers are nearly all in debt. A large percentage of the inhabitants 

of the towns are likewise heavily in debt, and there is no prospect 

and no hope of payment." 

— Hoti. Selah Merrill, in Sunday- School Times. 



XVIII : 28-33 MATTHEW 325 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn. 
GALILEE. 

THIRD TEAR, 
FORGIVENESS. 

THE TWO 
DEBTORS. 



28. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fel- 
low servants, which owed him a hundred pence : and he laid 
hands on him and took hivi by the throat, saying, Pay me that 
thou owest. 

29. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and be-sought 
him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 

30. And he would not : but went and cast him into prison, 
till he should pay the debt. 

31. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came 
and told unto their lord all that was done. 

32. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked ser- 
vant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me : 

33. Shouldst not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I 
had pity on thee ? 

Always, under all circumstances, we are to feel and to show a for- 
giving spirit, sincere pity and love. 

*' Heir of the same inheritance, 
Child of the self-same God, 
He hath but stumbled in the road 
We have in weakness trod." 



28. Took Him by the Throat — literally, went to choking him. 
" * The Roman law allowed a creditor to seize his debtor and drag 
him before the judge, and Roman writers repeatedly speak of a 
man's twisting the neck of his debtor till the blood 
flowed from mouth and nostrils.' ' Thus Livy (IV., 53) jxamX! 
relates how, a difficulty having arisen between the con- 
sul Valerius and one Menenius, the tribunes put an end to the con- 
test and the consul ordered into prison {collum torsisset, twisted the 
neck) the few who appealed. And Cicero {Pro Cluentio, XXJ.) : 
* Lead him to the judgment-seat with twisted neck {colto obtorto),* 
Compare Cicero in C. Verrem, IV., 10." — Vincent. 



33. Delivered Him to the Tormentors. — Many of the ancient 
prisons have the most horrible instruments of torture to compel men 
to confess or recant. " We may see in the tormentors 
the symbols of whatever agencies God employs in the ^ jJe^tor 
work of righteous retribution, the stings of remorse, the 
scourge of conscience, the scorn and reproach of men, not exclud- 



326 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XVIII : 34, 35 



34. And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay 
all that was due unto him. 

35. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts 
forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. 

ing, of course, whatever elements of suffering lie behind the veil, in 
the life beyond the grave." — Ellicoit. 



Torture of the Mirror. — The consciousness of having brought 
this upon himself by his own cruelty, was one of his greatest tor- 
ments. He saw his own vile character in his treatment of his 
servant. His punishment held a mirror before his face. 

In The Strand iox (July 3) 1897 is a story of " The Torture of the 
Mirror." A man who " refused to return to the Holy Church, " was 
shut up in a cell twelve feet square, the walls, roof and floor of which 
were covered with mirrors, and a lamp was hanging from the centre 
of the ceiling. 

" My first sensation was an ecstasy of terror. I turned dizzy, for 
I seemed to be standing unsupported amid a wild, kaleidoscopic 
jumble of things. Weird faces peered at me from every corner. 

" The face which stared at me from fifty directions at once was 
7nine, So long a time had elapsed since I had seen it that it had 
almost passed out of my recollection. The face with which I was to 
dwell was wild and terrible to look at. It had a beard ; and the 
eyes had changed so much that I wondered how much more they 
might change during the time they were to watch me. 

" It was not for some hours that I had the courage really to look, 
for the frightfulness of the sight is not to be conceived. Whether 
I looked to right or left, or up or down, there I saw myself in a hun- 
dred fantastic attitudes. There were front views, back views, side 
views. Here I was standing on my head : there I was seen in per- 
spective from above. Halves and fragments of me, cut off by cor- 
ners of the mirrors, were to be seen wherever my eye rested. 

" I was afraid to stir, so terrible was the commotion which my 
slightest movement caused among the phantoms in the mirrors. If 
I raised my arm, the gesture seemed to be travestied through all 
space under the light of a million reflected lamps. 

" I tried to keep my eyes shut, but the thought that millions of 
eyes were closed all round in mockery of me forced them open 
again. 



XVIII: 34, 35 



MATTHEW 



327 



" So passed the day — a day of anguish so terri- 
ble that I knew a few such would turn me into a 
raving madman." 



A.D. 29. 

Autumn, 
GALILEE. 

THIRD YEAR. 
FORGITEXESS. 

THE TWO 
DEBTOKS. 



Till he Should Pay All. — The old debt 
was still over him, because he had not fulfilled 
the condition which made forgiveness possible. 
"This is the condition, not arbitrarily imposed from 
without, but belonging to the very essence of salva- 
tion itself; just as if one were drawn from the raging 
sea, and set upon the safe shore, the condition of his 
continued safety would be that he remained there, and did not again 
cast himself into the raging waters." — Tre7ich. 



Not 
Arbitrary 
Penalty. 



Pay All. — This certainly does not imply, it rather negatives, the 
idea of a future restoration. " When the Phaeacians, abandoning 
their city, swore that they would not return till the mass 
of iron which they plunged into the sea, returned once p^^^^^f *^ ^ 
more upon the surface, this was the most emphatic form 
they could devise of declaring that they would never return ; such 
an emphatic declaration is the present." — Trefick. 



328 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX: I-II 



CHAPTER XIX. 



LAST THREB 

MONTHS OF 

JESUS' 

MINISTRY. 

DISCUSSION 

WITH 
PHAEISEES. 



1. And it came to pass, that vfhen Jesus had finished these A.D. 30. 
sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Feb -March. 
Judea beyond Jordan ; PEREA. 

2. And great multitudes followed him ; and he healed them 
there. 

5. Tf The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and 
saying unto him. Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for 
every cause ? 

4. And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, 
that he which made them at the beginning made them male 
and female ? 

5. And said. For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave 
to his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh } 

6. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath 
joined together, let not man put asunder. 

7. They say unto him. Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorce- 
ment, and to put her away ? 

8. He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you 
to put away your wives : but from the beginning it was not so. 

9. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, exc?pt it be for forni- 
cation, and shall marry another, committeth adultery : and whoso marrieth her which 
is put away doth commit adultery. 

10. H His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is 
not good to marry. 

11. But he said unto them. All vien cannot receive this saying, save they to whom 
it is given. 

4-6. Home. — London Tid-Bits offered a prize for the best an- 
swer to the question, " What is home ? " Here are a few of the 
bright answers which were received : 

" The golden setting in which the brightest jewel is ' mother.' " 
" Home is the blossom of which heaven is the fruit." 
"The father's kingdom, the children's paradise, the mother's 
world." 

" The jeweled casket containing the most precious of all jewels — 
domestic happiness." 

" Home is the central telegraph office of human love, into which 
run innumerable wires of affection, many of which, though extending 
thousands of miles, are never disconnected from the one great ter- 
minus." 



XIX: 12-15 MATTHEW 829 



A.D. 30. 

Feb.-March. 
PEREA. 

LAST THREE 

MONTHS OF 

JESUS' 

MINISTRY. 

CHILDREN 
BROUGHT 
TO JESUS. 



12. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from 
their mother's womb : and there are some eunuchs, which 
were made eunuchs of men : and there be eunuchs, which 
have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's 
sake. He that is able to receive z7, let him receive it. 

13. T[ Then were there brought unto him little children, that 
he should put his hands on them, and pray : and the disciples 
rebuked them. 

14. But Jesus said. Suffer little children, and forbid them 
not, to come unto me ; for of such is the kingdom of heaven. 

15. And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence. 

Importance of the Home.— The centre of power for building 
up a country in virtue, religion, and prosperity lies in the home. 
The battle of Science has for its central point, its Waterloo, the 
origin of life ; the religious warfare centres around the Cross, the 
Alcyone of all religious forces ; the moral battle is about the Home. 
Mrs. Hunt says that the Star of Bethlehem for temperance stands 
over the Schoolhouse. The Star of Bethlehem for morals and re- 
ligion stands over the Home. The Home is the place nearest Para- 
dise on earth, a hint of the Eden of the past, and a prophecy of 
Paradise regained. 



Garden of the Hesperides. — According to the Greek legend, 
as interpreted by Ruskin, when Jupiter, the type of ruling, manly 
power, was married to Juno, the goddess of the household, Earth, 
came to the wedding and brought as a wedding present a branch 
full of golden apples, which Juno sent to the Garden of the Hespe- 
rides, the Greek paradise far over the western sea, in order that the 
most precious fruit should grow in the loveliest garden of the world. 
Over these golden apples she placed as guard the four daughters of 
Atlas, who sustained the world, and of Hesperis, after whom the 
daughters and the garden were named. These maidens were named 
-^gle, Brightness ; Erytheia, Blushing Modesty ; Hestia, the Spirit 
of the Hearth ; and Arethusa, Ministering. The Hesperides garden 
of modem times is the Home. 



13-15. "Wherever a true woman comes home is always around 
her. The stars may be over her head, the glow-worms in the ni^ht- 
cold grass may be the fire at her foot, but home is where she is." 

— Ruskin. 



330 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX:I3-I5 

"She is mine own ; 
And I as rich in having such a jewel, 
As twenty seas, if all their sands were pearl. 
The water nectar, and the rocks pure gold." 

_________ — Shakespeare. 

Picture. — Jesus Blessing Little Childre7i, Plockhorst, Dore, Rem- 
brandt, Rubens, Schonherr, Eastlake, West. 



" 'The Master has come over Jordan,' 
Said Hannah, the mother, one day; 

* He is healing the people who throng him 

With a touch of his finger, they say. 

" * And now I shall carry the children, 
Like Rachel and Samuel and John ; 
I shall carry the baby Esther 
For the Lord to look upon.' 

** The father looked at her kindly, 

But he shook his head and smiled ; 

* Now who but a doting mother 

Would think of a thing so wild } 

" ' If the children were tortured by demons, 
Or dying of fever, 't were well ; 
Or had they the taint of the leper, 
Like many in Israel.' 

** ' Nay, do not hinder me, Nathan, 
I feel such a burden of care ; 
If I carry it to the Master, 
Perhaps I shall leave it there. 

" * If He lays His hand on the children, 
My heart will be lighter, I know ; 
For a blessing forever and ever 
Will follow them as they go.' 

" So over the hills of Judah, 
Along the vine-rows green. 
With Esther asleep on her bosom, 
And Rachel her brothers between — 



XIX: 13-15 



MATTHEW 



331 



'Mong the people who hung on His teaching, 
Or waiting His touch or His word, 

Through the row of proud Pharisees listening, 
She pressed to the feet of her Lord. 

' Now why shouldst thou hinder the Master,' 
Said Peter, 'with children like these? 

Seest not how from morning to evening 
He teacheth and healeth disease ? ' 



A.J>. 30. 

Feb. -March. 
PEREA. 

LAST THREE 

MONTHS OP 

JESUS' 

MtNISTRT. 

JESUS 

AND THE 
CHILDKEN. 



Then Christ said, ' Forbid not the children ; 

Permit them to com.e unto me '; 
And He took in His arms little Esther, 

And Rachel He set on His knee. 

And the heavy heart of the mother 
Was lifted all earth-care above, 

As He laid His hand on the brothers. 
And blessed them with tenderest love ; — 

As He said of the babes on His bosom, 
' Of such is the kingdom of heaven *; 

And strength for all duty and trial 
That hour to her spirit was given." 



•Julia Gill. 



Hymn.—" I Think when I Read that Sweet Story of Old." 



The Disciples Rebuked Them. 



The sages frowned, their beards they shook. 

For pride their hearts beguiled ; 
They said, each looking on his book, 

* We want no Child.' 
And men of grave and moral word. 

With consciences defiled, 
Said, ' Let the Truth alone be heard. 

We want no Child.' " 



— Mr. Lynch. 



Children's Voices. — "The child's need is the supreme need. 
It is said by balloonists that the voices of children are heard at a 



332 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX : I4 

greater height than is any other sound that goes up from the earth. 
They travel higher than the screech of the steam-whistle, the roar 
of the cataract, or the shout of a mob. So, to the attentive ear 
which can estimate the true force of social appeals, the requirements 
of the younger generation come the first and rise the highest." 

— Sunday-School Times. 

14. Suffer the Little Children to Come unto Me. — "Of 
the many boys and girls whom we have received into church-fellow- 
ship, I can say of them all that they have gladdened my 
Children heart, and I have never received any with gi-eater confi- 
^Chiircli. * dence than I have these. And this I have noticed about 
them, they have greater joy and rejoicing than any 
others. Among those I have had at any time to exclude from 
church-fellowship, out of a church of 2,700 members, I have never 
had to exclude a single one who was received while yet a child." 

— Spurgeon, 

Caring for the Children. — Mrs. Preston, in one of her 
beautiful poems, tells of a weary sister who grieved sorely because 
she had not been able to do any work for Christ. By a mother's 
dying bed she had promised to care for her little sister, and her work 
so filled her hands that she had not time for anything else. As she 
grieved thus once, the little sister sleeping beside her stirred, and 
told her of a sweet, strange dream she had had. She thought her 
sister was sitting sad because the king had bidden each one to bring 
him a gift. 

" 'And in my dream I saw you there, 
And heard you say, * no hands can bear 
A gift that are so filled with care.' 



* What care ? ' the king said, and smiled 
"o hear you answer, wailing 
I only toil to feed a child.' 



"''poem!"*"'' To hear you answer, wailing wild. 



" And then with such a look divine 
('Twas that awaked me with its shine), 
He whispered, ' But the child is mine.' 

"There are many for whom this little story -poem should have 
sweet comfort. There are fathers and mothers who find it hard to 



XIX: 14 MATTHEW 333 



provide for their children, It takes all their time 
and strength ; and sometimes they say, ' I cannot 
do any work for Christ because it takes every 
moment to earn bread and clothing and to care for 
my little ones.' But Jesus whispers, ' Yes, but your 
children are mine ; and what you do for them you 
do for me.' " 

— J, R. Miller, in Westminster Teacher, 



A.I>. 30. 

Feb.-March. 
PEREA. 

LAST THREE 

MONTHS OF 

JESUS' 

MINISTRY. 

JESUS 

AND THE 

CHILDREN. 



Early Conversions. — " At a late convention, Mr. B. F. Jacobs 
said that the triumphs of the church were to be won among the 
children ; and if men and women were to be converted, it was to be 
when they were children. 

" ' I'll prove that statement to you,' said Mr. Jacobs, and he called 
upon those in the audience who were converted after they were 50 
years of age to rise. An old lady and a venerable-looking gentlemen 
were the only ones to respond. * Two,' said Mr. Jacobs. * Thank 
God for that. Now will those who were converted after 35 please 
rise?' Not more than half a dozen responded ; but as Mr. Jacobs 
called for those who were converted when under 21 years of age, 
nearly every one in the audience rose to their feet. Mr. Jacobs 
smiled ; and as the audience appreciated the value of the object-les- 
son he had taught in support of his statement, the applause was 
spontaneous and hearty." — Boston Journal, 



Coming to Christ in Childhood.—" On the mantel-shelf of 
my grandmother's best parlor, among other marvels, was an apple in 
a phial. It quite filled up the body of the bottle, and my wondering 
inquiry was how it could have been got into its place. But the apple 
remained to me an enigma and a mystery. Walking in the garden I 
saw a phial placed upon a tree, bearing within it a tiny ^ 

apple, which was growing within the crystal. Now I in a Bottle, 
saw it all. The apple was put into the bottle when it 
was little, and it grew there. Just so we must catch the little men 
and women who swarm our streets, and introduce them within the 
influence of the Church ; for, alas ! it is hard indeed to reach them 
when they have ripened in carelessness and sin." — Spurgeon. 



Children and the Church. — For many years I kept a strict 
record of certain facts relating to those who joined the church under 



334 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX: 15 

my ministry. Of the 374 whose record I have, 327, or seven-eighths, 
belonged to families in which one or both parents were Christians, 
in almost all cases the mother. 



Homes and the Children. — Col. Gardiner Tufts for ten years 
had the oversight of all the youth in Massachusetts, under 17, who 
were sentenced by the courts. Of the 20,000 thus brought under his 
charge, he told me that not more than one-tenth had any homes that 
could be called homes. 



Library. — Mr. Kingsmill, in his " Prisons and Prisoners," gives 
the result of his inquiries as -to the origzji of the criminal courses of 
a large number of prisoners. Summing them up, we find that at 
least four out of five had their origin in bad homes, or the want of 
homes. (2) The superintendent of the Providence, R. I., Reform 
School said that such was the case with nine-tenths of those who 
were sent to his institution. 



Library, — " For of Such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Words- 
worth's Poems " Intimations of Immortality." 

" Trailing clouds of glory, do we come 
From God who is our home ; 
Heaven lies about us in our infancy. 



15. He Laid his Hands on Them. — "Touch but the heart of a 
child, and ages hence your finger-marks will be found upon him 
still." 

I took a piece of plastic clay 

And idly fashioned it one day. 

And as my fingers pressed it still, 

It moved and yielded to my will. 

I came again when days were past ; 
The bit of clay was hard at last. 
The form I gave it still it bore, 
But I could change that form no more. 

I took a piece of living clay, 
And gently formed it day by day. 
And molded with my power and art, 
A young child's soft and yielding heart, 



XIX: i6 



MATTHEW 



335 



i6. T[ And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good 
Master, what good thing; shall I do, that I may have eternal life ? 

I came again when years were gone, 
It was a man I looked upon ; 
He still that early impress wore, 
And I could change him never more. 



-^ 



' Who fain would follow Jesus, 

The Master's life must heed ; 
Must spend himself for others, 

And hear when others plead ; 
Must lift the little children 

In arms of blessing up. 
And oft to sorrow's pallid lip 

Hold sweet compassion up." 



A.B. 30. 

Feb.-March. 
PEREA. 

LAST THREE 

MONTHS OF 

JESUS' 

MINISTRY. 

THE EICH 
YOUNG 
RULER. 



Picture.— 16-22. The Rich You7tg Ruler, Hoffmann and Bida. 



16. That I may have Eternal Life. — Goethe's dying cry was, 
More light." The cry of the soul is " More life." 



Whatever crazy sorrow saith, 
No life that breathes with human breath 
Hath ever truly longed for death. 
'Tis life whereof our nerves are scant ; 
Oh, life, not death, for which we pant. 
More life, and fuller, that I want." 



• Tennyson. 



Inscriptions on the Milan Cathedral.— " Over the triple 
door-ways of the Cathedral of Milan there are three inscriptions 
spanning the splendid arches. Over one is carved a beautiful wreath 
of roses and underneath is the legend, ' All xS\2X^\i\Q.\\ pleases is but 
for a moment.' Over the other is sculptured a cross, and there are 
the words, ' All that v/hich troubles us is but for a moment.' But 
underneath the great central entrance to the main aisle is the 
inscription, ' That only is important which is eternal! If we realize 
the latter, we will not live for the passing pageants of the hour." 

— Christian Age, 



336 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX; 1 7-22 



17. And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good ? there is none good but 
one, that is, God : but if thou wilt enter into hfe, keep the commandments. 

18. He saith unto him, Which ? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder. Thou 
shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, 

19. Honour thy father and thy mother : and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
thyself. 

20. The young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth 
up : what lack I yet ? 

21. Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and 
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven : and come and follow me. 

22. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful : for he 
had great possessions. 

17. Keep the Commandments. — We cannot push a railroad train 
by our hands, try we never so hard ; but we can let on the steam, 
and thus move it. We cannot make ourselves good by trying to 
keep the commandments, but we can go to Jesus, who will give us a 
new heart, a new life, that will lead us to holiness. 



The Schoolmaster's Dream. — I once read of a schoolmaster 
who, having helped many persons, trusted for salvation to his good 
works. One night he dreamed that he was climbing up to heaven 
on a shining ladder, like Jacob's at Bethel. He mounted far up 
toward the sky, when he came to a place where the rounds were 
gone. Above him rose the ladder to heaven, but he could go no 
farther. He saw in this latter his own good works, but saw that 
there were great deficiencies in them, — sins of omission which he 
could not span. There was no hope of heaven in this way. 



22. He went away Sorrowful ; for he had Great Posses- 
sions. 

" A finger's breadth at hand may mar 
A world of light in heaven afar ; 
A mote eclipse a glorious star." 
Reference. See on xxvi. 48, Retsch's illustrations of Goethe's 
" Faust." 



An Epitaph.—" In one of England's great cathedrals rests one 
whose gravestone, according to his own direction, bears but the single 
word, Miscrri'imis, ' most miserable.' He was a man of wealth and 
position, or his sepulchre could not have been there." " A spiritual 
giant buried under a mountain of gold." 



XIX: 22 MATTHEW 337 



This world's wealth that men so much desire 
May well be likened to a burning fire, 
"Whereof a little can do little harm 
But profit much our bodies well to warm : 
But take too much, and surely thou shalt burn ; 
So too much wealth to too much woe doth turn.' 
— Iji Apples of Gold. 



A.D. 30. 

Feb. -March. 
PEREA. 

LAST THREE 

MONTHS OF 

JESUS' 

MINISTRY. 

THE RICH 
YOUNG 
RULER. 



Seeking satisfaction in this world is like trying to quench the 
thirst by drinking the salt waters of the sea. The more we drink, 
the thirstier we are. 

The love of money is the root of all evil. I heard Henry Ward 
Beecher once say that the love of money was all right, but the love 
of money was all wrong. 

" I cannot call riches better than the baggage of virtue ; the Roman 
word is better, impedijnenta ; for as the baggage is to an army so is 
riches to virtue — it cannot be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth 
the march ; yea, and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the 
victory." — Lord Bacon {Essays), 



Rowing while Tied to the Wharf.— Dr. William M. Taylor 
tells a story of some sailors who went ashore on a spree, and return- 
ing to their vessel late in the evening, got into their boat, and began 
to row toward the ship. They rowed all night, but could not reach 
their destination. When daylight came, they found that they had 
not unfastened their boat, but were tied to the wharf. So men, cling 
to some sin, some property, or hope they are unwilling to give up. 



Coming Empty into Port. — " A ship lately came into port which 
had long been out upon the sea. The coal gave out ; then every- 
thing in turn that would burn — cargo, stores, spars, furniture — had 
to be burned to bring the vessel to the harbor. She anchored at 
last, with nothing left worth anchoring. So many rich men come 
into the port of old age, having burned up everything of manhood, 
character, and hope, — rich in the world's eyes, mayhap, but wretched 
wrecks in God's^sight." — Sunday-School Times. 

Reference. See xvi. 26, a story of Russian diamond mines. 



338 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX : 23 



23. T[ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man 
shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. 

Library. — A most effective illustration is found in the tract, 
" Captain Bull's Experience " ; Bertram's Homiletic Cyclopedia, 
" The Devil's Bait," and " The Fly in the Honey." 



Reference. — The picture of the " Red Fisherman," under 
chapter iv. 8, 9. 



Library. — The difference-between riches of a community and of 
an individual is admirably stated in W^hately's "Annotations," 
370-374. 



" The declaimers against the incompatibility of wealth and virtue 
resemble the Harpies of Virgil, seeking to excite disgust at the 
banquet of which they are themselves eager to partake." 

— Whately, 

23. A Rich Man shall hardly Enter, etc. 



Library. — Tennyson's " Vision of Sin," dealing with the baser 
and more sensuous forms. 

" I had a vision when the night was late ; 
A youth came riding towards a palace gate, 
He rode a horse with wings that would hav^ flown, 
But that his heavy rider kept him down." 

" In the symbolism of those last two lines we may trace something 
like a reminiscence, though not a direct reproduction, of the mar- 
velous myihos of the Phcedrus of Plato (pp. 246, 254). The horse 
with wings that ' would have flown ' is the nature of man with its 
capacities and aspirations. The ' heavy rider ' is the sensuous will 
that represses the aspirations and yields easily to temptation. 

" The Palace of Art presents the analysis of a far nobler experi- 
ment in life, answering to that of Koh^leth (Ecclesiastes) when he 
sought to ' guide his heart with wisdom' and surrounded himself 
with the ' peculiar treasure of kings.' 



XIX : 24-26 MATTHEW 339 



24, And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go 
through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into 
the kingdom of God. 

25, When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly 
amazed, saying. Who then can be saved ? 

26, But Jesus beheld iheyn, and said unto them, With men 
this is impossible ; but with God all things are possible. 

" I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house 
Wherein at ease for aye to dwell, 
I said, O Soul, make merry and carouse, 
Dear Soul, for all is well." 



A.©. 30. 

Feb. -March. 
PEREA. 

LAST THREE 

MONTHS OF 

JESUS' 

MINISTRY. 

THE RICH 
AND THE 
KINGDOM 
OE GOD. 



■Cambridge Bible on Ecclesiastes. 



Solomon's Experiment. — " I made me great works ; I builded me 
houses ; I planted me vineyards : 

" I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of 
all ki7id of fruits : 

" I made me pools of water to water therewith the wood that 
bringeth forth trees : 

" I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my 
house ; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above 
all that were in Jerusalem before me : 

" I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of 
kings and of the provinces : I gat me men singers and women sing- 
ers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, 
and that of all sorts. 

" So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me 
in Jerusalem : also my wisdom remained with me." 

He possessed — 

" The wealth of Ormus and of Ind, 
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold." 

But he found only " vanity and vexation of spirit." Here was no 
door to the kingdon of heaven. 



26. With God all Things are Possible. — At the laying of the 
foundation-stone of Bunker Hill Monument, in 1843, the crowd was 



340 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX : 2/ 



27. ^ Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and 
followed thee ; what shall we have therefore ? 

great, and the pressure immense, so that danger of the 
Bunker mil. falling oi the platform was imminent. One person 

shouted, " Keep back, or we will be all killed here ! " 
" We can't," returned the crowd. Another implored them to stand 
back, or the lives of hundreds would run the risk of sacrifice; and 
the reply was again, " We can't." At last the giant Webster came 
forward, and, waving his hand, said, " My friends, keep back ; other- 
wise the consequence may be fatal to many." " It is impossible, 
Mr. Webster," was the answer. ''Impossible!" he replied. "Im- 
possible ! Nothing is impossible on Bunker Hill ! " and the crowd 
fell back im.mediately. 

27-29. Behold We have Forsaken All. — "Mahmoud, the 

great Mohammedan conqueror of India, when he had reached Som- 

nat, an idol fifteen feet high facing the entrance of the 

Mahmoud, temple, instantly ordered the image to be destroyed ; but 

Breaker. ^^^ Brahmins threw themselves before him and offered 

an enormous ransom if he would spare their deity. 

' Mahmoud, after a moment's pause, declared that he would rather 

be known as the breaker than the seller of idols, and struck the 

image with his mace. His example was instantaneously followed, 

and the image, which was hollow, burst with the blows and poured 

forth a quantity of diamonds and other jewels which amply repaid 

Mahmoud for the sacrifice of the ransom.' " — Elphinstone. 

" Thou, too, heaven's commissioned warrior to cast down each idol 

throne 

In thy heart's profaned temple, make this faithful deed thine own, 

Let descend the faithful blow ; 
From their wreck and from their ruin first will thy true riches flow. 
Thou shalt lose thy life, and find it ; thou shalt boldly cast it forth ; 
And then, back again receiving, know it in its endless worth." 

— Trench, 

28. Ye Shall Sit upon Twelve Thrones.— The reward as com- 
ing from right doing, and not from seeking the reward, is well illus- 
trated by Rudyard Kipling's description of how soldiers gained the 
Victoria Cross : 

" And when all is said and done, courage of mind is the finest 



XIX : 28-30 MATTHEW 341 



A.D. 28. 

Feb.-March. 
PEEEA. 

LAST THREE 

MONTHS or 

JESUS' 

MINISTRY. 

REWARD 

OF 

DISCIPLES. 



28. And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye 
which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of 
man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon 
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 

29. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or 
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for 
my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit 
everlasting life. 

30. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be 
first. 

thing anyone can hope to attain to. A weak or undisciplined soul 
is apt to become reckless under strain (and this is being afraid the 
wrong way about), or to act for its own immediate advantage. For 
this reason the Victoria Cross is jealously guarded, and if there is 
any suspicion that a man is playing to the gallery or out pot-hunt- 
ing for medals, as they call it, he must head his charges and rescue 
his wounded all over again as a guarantee of good faith. 

" Men are taught to volunteer for anything and everything ; going 
out quietly after, not before, the authorities have filled their place. 

They are also instructed that it is cowardly, it is child- 

The Victoria 
ish, and it is cheating to neglect or scamp the plain cj-oss. 

work immediately in front of them, the duties they are 

trusted and paid to do, for the sake of stepping aside to snatch at 

what to an outsider may resemble fame or distinction. 

"The order itself is a personal decoration, and the honor and 
glory of it belongs to the wearer ; but he can only wm it by forget- 
ting himself, his own honor and glory, and by working for something 
beyond and outside and apart. And that is the only way you ever 
get anything in this world worth the keeping." 

— Riidyard Kipling, iji Yotcth's Companion. 

30. The First Shall be Last. — Some of the stars in the milky 
way, and in the nebulae, are doubtless infinitely larger and brighter 
than our sun which hides all the stars. From another point of 
view they will so appear. 
Dante relates how he has seen — 

** The thorn frown rudely all the winter long 
And after bear the rose upon its top ; 
And bark, that all the way across the sea 
Ran straight and speedy, perish at the last. 
E'en in the haven's mouth. " — Paradiso. 



342 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XIX : 30 

Far from this Man in Paradise.—" A youth, whose heart was 
black with sin, appeared before the cell of a dervish (a monk cele- 
brated for his sanctity). He began to lament the depth of his sin, 
and implore pardon. The proud monk indignantly demanded how 
he presumed to appear in the presence of God's holy prophet; 
assuring him that it was in vain to seek forgiveness, adding : ' May 
God grant that I may stand far from this youth on the judgment 
day.' On this, Jesus spoke : * It shall be so. The prayer of both is 
granted ; this sinner, a penitent, shall then enter Paradise. But the 
monk's prayer is also granted ; he shall be far from the youth in 
that day, even in torment." 

— A Persian Parable, from Saadi, in Trench. 



\ 



XX : I-I9 MATTHEW 843 



CHAPTER XX. 



A.D. 30. 

Feb.-March. 
PEREA. 

LAST THREE 

MONTHS. 

THE PEREAN 

MINISTRY. 

PARABLE 

OF THE 

LABORERS. 

1* 



1. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a 

householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labour- 
ers into his vineyard. 

2. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny 
a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 

3. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others 
standing idle in the marketplace. 

4. And said unto them ; Go ye also into the vineyard, and 
whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. 

5. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 

6. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and 
saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle ? 

7. They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them. Go ye 
also into the vineyard ; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. 

8. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward. Call 
the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. 

9. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received 
every man a penny. 

10. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more ; 
and they likewise received every man a penny. 

11. And when they had received ??, they murmured against the goodman of the 
house, 

12. Saying, These last have wrought hut one hour, and thou hast made them equal 
unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. 

13. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong : didst not 
thou agree with me for a penny ? 

14. Take that thine ?>, and go thy way : I will give unto this last, even as unto 
thee. 

15. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own ? Is thine eye evil, 
because I am good ? 

16. So the last shall be first, and the first last : for many be called, but few chosen. 

17. II And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, 
and said unto them, 

18. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem ; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto 
the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death. 

19. And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify 
him : and the third day he shall rise again. 

17. Going up to Jerusalem, not merely because Jerusalem was 
situated on a hill so that all who went there had to go up, but also 
and chiefly because it was higher politically and religiously. So in 



344 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XX : 20-23 



20. ^ Then came to him the mother of Zebedee's children with her sons, worship- 
ping him^ and desiring a certain thing of him. 

21. And he said unto her, What wilt thou ? She saith unto him, Grant that these 
my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy 
kingdom. 

22. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink 
of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am bap- 
tized with ? They say unto him. We are able. 

23. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with 
the baptism that I am baptized with ; but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is 
not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my 
Father. 

England they always speak of going up to London, no matter how- 
much higher the land from which they go. "Xenophon's most 
famous book is called the 'Anabasis,' or the 'Going-up'; and some 
commentators think that it was so called chiefly because the expedi- 
tion it describes was directed against the capital of Artaxerxes." 



22. Ye Know Not what ye Ask. 

"O wistful, blissful ignorance! 
It is blissful not to know- 
It keeps me still in the arms of God, 
Which will not let me go, 
And hushes my soul to rest. 
In the bosom that loves me so. 

So I go onward not knowing — 

I would not if I might — 

I would rather walk in the dark with God 

Than walk alone in the light ; 

I would rather walk with him by faith 

Than walk alone by sight." 



Library.— On trying to manage Providence for ourselves, see 
E. E. Hale's story of " Hands Off " in his " Christmas in a Palace." 



23. Is NOT Mine to Give, but for Whom it is Prepared of 
MY Father.— The greatest and best things done for God's king- 
dom have not been done by those whom men would have selected 



XX : 24-29 MATTHEW 345 



A.®. 30. 

March. 

PEREA. 

BEQUEST 

OF THE 

MOTHER OF 

ZEBEDEE'S 

CHILDREN. 



24. And when the ten heard z7, they were moved with in- 
dignation against the two brethren. 

25. But Jesus called them unto him^ and said, Ye know 
that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, 
and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 

26. But it shall not be so among you : but whosoever will be 
great among you, let him be your minister ; 

27. And whosever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. 

28. Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and 
to give his life a ransom for many. 

29. And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. 

beforehand, but those in some way selected by the Father himself, 
because he knew they could be best trained and fitted for the work. 
This is the ideal we are seeking after in our city and national govern- 
ments. 

A watch wheel is good in a watch, but is entirely unfitted to be a 
part of a steam engine. 

Library. — 24. Mrs. Gatty's " Parables from Nature," " Imper- 
fect Instruments." Bulwer's " Pilgrims of the Rhine," " the Journey 
of the Virtues." 

28. He that will be Chief among you let Him be Your 
Servant. 

Loch Katrine, embowered among the Highlands of Scotland, a 
poem in water, immortalized in story and song till it seems almost 
transfigured with a glory beyond its natural beauty and charm, is yet 
the source of the water supply of the city of Glasgow, flowing down 
among the homes of the poor, cleansing the filth from the streets, 
bringing refreshment, cheer, comfort, cleanliness, and health every- 
where. So to every one who has the Gospel, or possesses wealth, 
culture, education, talent, is given the privilege and duty of sending 
the living water in copious streams to the heathen, to the poor, to 
the sinful, to all who are in need. 



Picture. — The Angels in the Kitchen, 

Library. — 28. " A ransom for many." Sophocles' *' Edipus. 

" For one soul working in the strength of love 
Is mightier than ten thousand to atone." 



346 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XX : 30-34 



30. *[1 And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that 
Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 

31 . And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace ; but 
they cried the more, saying. Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. 

32. And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do 
unto you ? 

33. They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 

34. So Jesus had compassion 071 them, and touched their eyes : and immediately 
their eyes received sight, and they followed him. 



Reference. — 30-34. See on ix. 27-30. 



Variations 



30. Two Blind MEN.—Mark and Luke speak only of one, Bar- 
timeus. 

In the stories of the different evangelists there are a number of 
variations and sometimes almost slight contradictions. However, 
we must remember that this is always true of independ- 
ent histories of an event seen by different observers from 
Narrative, different standpoints, and is a proof of the reliability of 
the story. If all had exactly agreed, it would be proof of 
collusion. The same event presents a different" aspect to each 
observer. Even if there were contradictions, which there are not, 
they would not discredit the fact. Thus there was a real battle of 
Waterloo, although as Chadwick says, " When the 
When the generals of Henry the Fourth strove to tell him what 
WaTerio^ passed after he was wounded at Aumale, no two of them 
began. agreed in the course of events which gave them victory. 
Two armies beheld the battle of Waterloo, but who can 
tell when it began } At ten o'clock, said the Duke of Wellington. At 
half-past eleven, said General Alava, who rode beside him. At 
twelve, according to Napoleon and Drouet ; and at one, according to 
Ney." Probably it began at different times in differents parts. See 
also Whately's " Historic Doubts " concerning Napoleon. 



So Many Blind in Palestine.— A well-known commentator in 
mentioning this difficulty, refers to fourteen or fifteen proposed 
ways of harmonizing the discrepancies. 

What nonsense ! why whenever you enter any city or any village in 
the East you are likely to find one blind man on one side of the way, 
and two blind men on the other side of the way, and all three of 
them are sure to call on you for help. 

— //. C, Trumbull, zn Sludies in Oriental Social Life, 



XX:30-34 



MATTHEW 



347 



BLIND BARTIMEUS. 

Blind Bartimeus at the gates 

Of Jericho, in darkness waits ; 

He hears the crowd ; he hears a breath 

Say, " It is Christ of Nazareth ! " 

And calls in tones of agony, . *^ 

[yesus, mercy have on me f\ 

The thronging multitudes increase; 
"Blind Bartimeus, hold thy peace!" 
But still above the noisy crowd. 
The beggar's cry is shrill and loud ; 
Until they say, " He calleth thee ! " 
Gdpcfi, eyeipe, (jjuvel ae \ 
{Take courage, rise, he calleth thee I^ 

Then saith the Christ, as silent stands 

The crowd, " What wilt thou at my hands ? ' 

And he replied, " Oh, give me light ! 

Rabbi, restore the blind man's sight!" 

And Jesus answers, "TTraye 

'H ttIctlq gov ceauKe ae \ 

{This faith of thine hath saved thee !'\ 

Ye that have eyes, yet cannot see. 
In darkness and in misery, 
Recall those mighty voices three : 



A.D. 30. 

March. 

PEEEA. 

THE TWO 
BLIND MEN. 



HlJGOV^ hlETjG6v [IE ! 

QdpaeL, eysipe, viraye I 
*H TziariQ cov aiauKE ae \ 



-Longfellow. 



Library. — Mrs. Browning's sonnet, " Perplexed Music." 



Compensations. — God's compensatory law is at work also, and it 
is interesting to watch its workings. It is a curious fact that most of 
those who suffer from mental and physical defects possess unusual 
excellence of character, or rare brilliancy of mind. Such have 
enriched the world with beauties v/hich the most felicitous might 



848 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XX : 3O-34 

covet, but could never produce. Such were Democritus (of whom it 
was said, " though born blind, he saw more than all Greece besides"), 
Horace, Fra Angelico, Milton, and the beloved Cowper, Blaise Pas- 
cal, and hosts of others. There are paths so dark that they who 
tread them would fain cry out with fear, did they not hear the strains 
and breathe the aroma floated to them from the celestial gardens. 
As the moon sees the face of the sun, and therefore makes the earth 
glad, so they feel the Hand that guides them, and are content. Such 
souls with triumph sing : 

" I know whom thou wilt glorify. 
And raise o'er' sun and stars on high. 
Thou leadst thro' depths of darkness here ! ** 



The Recovery of Sight. — " A maiden some sixteen years of age 
had all her life been the unconscious victim of a blemish in her eyes 
that hindered perfect vision. A surgical operation was finally agreed 
upon and successfully made. One evening, some time after her 
recovery, she went into the open air after nightfall. She rushed into 
the parlor, the joy of a great discovery lighting up every feature. 
' Oh, come ! ' she exclaimed — ' come out quickly to the lawn, and see 
what beautiful things have appeared in the sky ! ' Her friends hastily 
followed her out of doors, wondering what might have occurred. 
They saw nothing. ' What do you mean ? ' they asked her. ' Look ! ' 
she said ; ' don't you see those bright things sparkling all over the 
sky ? ' ' My dear child,' one who loved her, said, softly, ' Those are 
the stars ! ' Heaven is full of shining lights that God has hung out 
to charm the pathway to His eternal home, to lure you upward, to 
show you how far eternity exceeds time in beauty, how far heaven 
rises beyond earth in value and glory. Yet your eyes are still with- 
holden. Oh, for the hand of Him who opened the eyes of the blind 
to touch your soul, and give you sight of these realities." 

—Dr, McCook, 

Reference. See on ix. 27. 



XXI : 1-9 MATTHEW 349 



CHAPTER XXI. 



A.D. 30. 
Sunday, 

April 2, 
PASSION 
WEEK. 



MOXTNT OF 
OLIVES AND 

JERUSALEM. 

TRIUMPHAL 
ENTRY. 



1. And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were 
come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus 
two disciples, 

2. Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, 
and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her : 
loose them^ and bring them unto me. 

3. And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say. The 
Lord hath need of them ; and straightway he will send them. 4 

4. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken by the prophet, saying, 

5. Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and 
sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. 

6. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, 

7. And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set 
him thereon. 

8. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way ; others cut down 
branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. 

9. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna 
to the Son of David : Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna 
in the highest. 

Picture. — The Tnmnpkal Entry, Dore, Plockhorst, Bida. 

8. Spread (kept spreading) Their Garments, outer garments. — 

" They took off their own outer robes, somewhat on the principle 

that actuated the heart of young Sir Walter Raleigh, 

when, on Queen Elizabeth coming to a miry part of the t^ "alter 

',7.. , . ^ , ^ ^ Ealeigh. 

road, and hesitatmg for an mstant how to step across, 

he ' took off his new plush mantle, and spread it on the ground. 

Her majesty trod gently over the fair foot-cloth.' " — Morison. 



Example at Bethlehem. — " At that time (1834) when some of 
the inhabitants of Bethlehem, who had participated in the rebellion, 
were already imprisoned, and all were in keep distress, Mr. Farrar, 
then English consul at Damascus, was on a visit to Jerusalem, and 
rode out with Mr. Nicolayson to Solomon's Pools. On their return, 
as they rode the ascent to enter Bethlehem, hundreds of people, 
male and female, met them, imploring the consul to interfere in 



350 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : I-9 

their behalf, and afford them his protection ; and all at once, by a 
sort of simultaneous movement, they spread their garments in the 
way before the horses." — Dr. Edward Robinson. 



Examples from History.—" Thus David was welcomed by sing- 
ing and dancing women, out of all the cities of Israel, as he came 
back from the slaughter of the Philistines. Herodotus records that 
when Xerxes was passing over the bridge of the Hellespont, the way 
before him was strewed with branches of myrtle, while burning per- 
fumes filled the air. Quintius Curtius tells of the scattering of flowers 
in the way before Alexander- the Great when he entered Babylon. 
Monier, in our own day, saw the way of a Persian ruler strewn with 
roses for three miles ; while glass vessels filled with sugar were 
broken under his horses' feet, — the sugar being symbolical of pros- 
perity." — Prof. Isaac Hall, in Sunday-School Times. 

" When Mordecai issued from the palace of Ahasuerus the streets 
(Targum on Esther) were strewn with myrtle." 



The Queen's Jubilee.— For the Queen of England's jubilee 
(beginning June 20, 1897) to celebrate the completion of her sixtieth 
year as queen, the longest reign in English history, and the most 
glorious, the greatest preparations were made for the procession 
through London. Single houses along the route were rented for 
the occasion at $50,000, and single windows at $150 apiece. No 
Roman triumph was ever so magnificent, or meant a millionth part 
as much for good. The whole empire was enthused ; Princes of 
India and premiers of the eleven self-governed colonies, with their 
suites and soldiers, brought brilliancy to the show, and demonstrated 
the extent of the military resources of the empire. The six-mile 
route of the procession was embellished with the costumes of Zap- 
tiehs from Cyprus, Houssas from the Niger, troopers from the Cape, 
mounted riflemen from Australia, artillery men from Canada, and 
Sikhs and Ghoorkas from India, following the open state coach of 
Britain's queen. Throughout the gala week bonfires were lighted 
on the hilltops of the United Kingdom, London was illuminated 
like Paris on a fete night, there were court ceremonies and military 
and naval reviews at Aldershot and Portsmouth, and in brief, noth- 
ing was left undone to stir British pride and stimulate British 
loyalty." And yet far greater was the "choir invisible"; far more 



XXI:IO-II MATTHEW 351 



lo. And when-he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was 
moved, saying, Who is this ? 

n. And the multitude said. This is Jesus the prophet of 
Nazareth of Galilee. 

glorious the religious, moral, literary, and scientific 
improvements made to bless the people, which 
invisibly accompanied every procession. 



A.©. 30. 
Sunday, 

April 2. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

MOUNT OP 
OLIVES AND 
JERUSALEM. 

TRIUMPHAL 
ENTRY. 



Library. — See McKenzie's " The Nineteenth Century. 



Pompey's Triumph.—" In September, B.C. 6i, about 90 years 
before Christ's triumphal entry, the most magnificent triumph ever 
seen in Rome was given to Pompey. For two days the grand pro- 
cession of trophies from every land and a long retinue of captives 
moved into the city along the Via Sacra. Brazen tablets were car- 
ried, on which were engraved the names of the conquered nations, 
including 1,000 castles and 900 cities. The remarkable circumstance 
of the celebration was that it declared him conqueror of the whole 
world. So the triumphant procession of Christ into Jerusalem was 
but a faint shadow of the coming of the Prince of Peace, when all 
nations and the wealth and glory of them shall take part in his 
glorious triumph. And the day is fast approaching." 

— After Foster s Cyclopedia of Illustrations. 



Library. — Read the beautiful description of the triumphal pro- 
cession in Stanley's " Sinai and Palestine." Robert Browning's 
Poems, " The Patriot," with whom at first 

" It was roses, roses all the way. '' 
" The house roofs seemed to heave and sway, 
The church spires flamed, such flags they had." 

But in one year all this was changed for binding ropes, and stones, 
and a scaffold. 

10. All THE City was Moved. — kaeiadr], shaken as by an earth- 
quake ; stirred, as the sea in a storm. 



Who is This ? — Many rejoiced, but some were disturbed and dis- 
tressed with fear of what it all might mean. (Verse 15.) 



352 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 10, II 

The Seven Fears Changed to Joys. — In the " Light of Asia," 
the king dreamed troublous dreams about his son, Prince Siddartha, 
and seven great and terrible fears came before him in vision. The 
flag of Indra was rent by a rushing wind, ten huge elephants shook 
the earth with their tread, a mighty drum pealed like a thunder- 
storm ; his son sat on a tower scattering gems, as if it rained jacinths 
and rubies, and all the world seized on these treasures. Every one 
was to the king a great fear. But a wise counselor showed him that 
every one of his fears was in reality a great joy. The rent flag was 
but the beginning of the new. The ten elephants were the ten great 
gifts of wisdom ; the tower was the growing of the true religion, and 
the gems were the truths his son would give to the world ; and the 
drum was the thunder of the preached word. 



Casting Our Garments Before the Lord.— As these people 
cast their garments before Jesus as he rode in triumph, so we should 
cast our talents, our money, our time, our deeds of love, all that we 
have and are, before him, and do all that we can to aid his cause, 
and hasten his success. He is riding in triumph even now through 
the ages, and through all lands, 

" Ride on triumphantly; behold, we lay 
Our lusts and proud wills in thy way." 



The Choir Invisible.— If Christ had opened the eyes of those 
looking upon this scene as the eyes of Elisha's servant were opened, 
so that they might see the invisible, and hear the inaudible, no pen 
could picture the real triumphal procession. They would have seen 
the vast multitude of those whom he had healed and comforted and 
saved from sin, — Lazarus and Bartimeus, the ten lepers, the widow 
of Nain's son, the ruler's daughter, Peter's mother-in-law, a host of 

those whom he had raised from the dead, those from 

The whom he had cast out devils, the blind he had made to 

P "^"' ion ^^^' ^^^ ^^^ lame that now walked, the lepers he had 

cleansed, those who had been delivered from the bond- 
age of their sins and brought into the light of the gospel. There 
would join them the angels who sang at his birth, Moses and Elijah, 
who appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, and the twelve 
legions of angels he once said were ready at his call. Heaven would 
swiftly have emptied itself, and all its choirs would joyfully have 



XXI: 10,11 MATTHEW 353 



come down to do him honor, and sing their songs 
of joy over many sinners brought to repentance. 

The triumphs of Caesar and Pompey were but 
child's play to this. Not all of earth's monarchs 
together could have summoned such a procession. 
Imagination fails to paint the picture of Christ's 
real triumphal procession. 



A.D. 30. 
Sunday, 

April 2. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

MOUNT OF 
OLIVES AND 
JERUSALEM. 

TRIUMPHAL 
ENTRY. 



The Triumphal Procession to Come.— There is to be a great 
triumphal procession in which Jesus will one day be the leader ; for 
in that day he will call forth all his resources, and will march in real 
triumph ! The great procession of the universe is yet to come ; for 
the day is coming when the Son of man will return to this earth " in 
his glory, and all the holy angels with him." The apostle John tells 
us, " I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse ; and he that 
sat thereon, called Faithful and True." "And the armies which 
are in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, 
white and pure ; and he hath on his garment and on his thigh a 
name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." 

" They know that to him they owe all that is dearest in life. From 
him they have received pardon and grace, and a title to eternal life. 
I see among them the redeemed drunkard, who was miserable, and 
blind, and naked, and half demented, but who now is clothed, and in 
his right mind. I see there the harlot, who now is refined, and trying 
to live a Christ-like life. Old men and young boys, feeble women 
and robust maidens, all saved by the power of the Lord, unite in that 
throng. Multitudes of Sunday-school children are there, too, and 
join their voices with those of the others in singing his praise. 
At that time heaven shall be drained of all its resources to make 
that procession worthy of the Son of God. Prophecy had foretold 
his coming in humility, and it came to pass. But prophecy has also 
told of his coming again in glory, and that, too, shall come to pass." 
— Dr. A. F. Schauffler, in Sunday-School Times. 

Commerce, railroads, printing presses, inventions, wealth, civiliza- 
tion are aiding his triumph, paving his way, and advancing his glory. 
All are cast down before him in his onward march. And all the 
redeemed, ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thou- 
sands, are singing hosannas to him, and joining in the song, " Worthy 
is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, 
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Jesus still weeps 



354 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 12 



12. Tf And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and 
bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats 
of them that sold doves. 

over those who refuse to come to him to be saved. But his triumph 
is increasing and soon — 

" The gospel banner wide unfurled 
Shall wave in triumph o'er the world ; 
And every creature, bond and free, 
Shall hail the glorious jubilee." 



12. Money Changers in the Temple.— "The yearly temple tax 
of half a shekel due from every Jew, however poor, could not be re- 
ceived except in a native coin called the temple shekel, which was 
not generally current. Strangers, therefore, had to change their 
Roman, Greek, or Eastern money, at the stalls of the money-changers, 
to obtain the coin required. This trade gave ready means for fraud, 
which was only too common." — Maclear. 

" There are scores of money-changers now in Jerusalem," accord- 
ing to Hon. Selah Merrill. " If you make a purchase, it is not one 
time in twenty that the person with whom you trade will have any 
change." He cast them out with authority as a rightful king. 

" The pilgrims brought with them the coinage of their own coun- 
try — Syrian, Egyptian, Greek, as the case might be— and their money 
was either not current in Palestine, or, as being stamped with the 
symbols of heathen worship, could not be received into 

London.' ^^^ corban, or treasury of the temple.' 'We must pict- 
ure to ourselves, in addition to all the stir and bustle 
inseparable from such traffic, the wrangling and bitter words and 
reckless oaths which necessarily grow out of it with such a people 
as the Jews.' ' The history of Christian churches has not been 
altogether without parallels that may help us to understand how 
such a desecration came to be permitted. Those who remember the 
state of the great cathedral of London, as painted in the literature 
of Elizabeth and James, when mules and horses, laden with market 
produce, were led through the aisles of St. Paul's as a matter of 
every-day occurrence, and bargains were struck there, and burg- 
laries planned, and servants hired (Milman's ' Annals of St. Paul's,' 
p. 286), will feel that even Christian and Protestant England has 



XXI: 13 MATTHEW 355 



13. And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called 
the house of Prayer ; but ye have made it a den of thieves. 



hardly the right to cast a stone at the priests and 
people of Jerusalem.' " — ElHcoit. 



A.D. 30. 
Sunday, 

April 2. 
PASSION 
WEEK. 

JERUSALEM. 

CLEANSING 

THE 

TEMPLE. 



A Type. — This was a type of the work of Christ in the heart, in 
the church, and in the world, cleansing them from all sinful habits, 
customs, feelings, and acts. " He is like a refiner's fire, and like 
fullers' soap ; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver ; 
and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and 
silver" (Mai. iii. 2, 3). Again he exerted his kingly power by de- 
stroying the works of the great enemy, the devil. 



Library. — One good man driving out a crowd of wrong-doers. An 
illustration of the weakness of those who are consciously wrong is 
found in Scott's " Marmion " : 

" Thus oft it haps that when within 
Men shrink at sense of inward sin, 

A feather daunts the brave, 
A fool's wild speech confounds the wise. 
And proudest princes veil their eyes 
Before the meanest slave." 



Need of Cleansing. — The necessity in a new country of cutting 
down trees, rooting out bushes, plowing the soil, before the good 
seed can be planted. 

Cleansing a Church. — A member of the Society of Friends in 
Philadelphia was once called upon by a committee on account of 
some trespass of their rules, when he related to them the following 
dream : " I dreamed that the whole Society of Friends were collected 
in our great meeting-house and attending to the business of the 
church. The subject under discussion was the filthy 
condition of the meeting-house and the means of cleans- ^prg",!^ ^ 
ing it. Many plans were proposed and discussed by the 
prominent members, who sat in the upper seats ; but none seemed 
likely to answer the purpose till one little man, who occupied a seat 



856 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 14-16 



14. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple ; and he healed them. 

15. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, 
and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David ; 
they were sore displeased. 

16. And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say ? And Jesus saith unto them, 
Yea ; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast per- 
fected praise ? 

on the floor of the house, and had not taken part in the discussion, 
got up and said, * Friends, I think that if each one of us would take 
a broom, and sweep immediately around his own seat, the meeting- 
house would be cleaned.' " ■ 



14. He Healed Them. — An example and type of his kingly work 
among men, comforting, healing, blessing, redeeming his people 
from every outward and inward evil. These two kinds of work, puri- 
fying and saving from evil, are ever going on as the kingdom of 
Christ moves on to its final triumph over Satan and all his works. 
Compare the legend of St. George and the Dragon and Ruskin's 
remarks on dragon-slaying in " Modern Painters," Vol. V. 



15. — The Children .... Saying, Hosanna. — The Pharisees 
sore displeased : so that they asked Jesus to put a stop to their 
shoutings of praise (Luke xix. 39, 40). 



"They were 'lumps of ice in a sea of fire.* Like the enemies 
around Octavius, ' Some that smile have in their hearts millions of 
mischiefs.' They begged Jesus to restrain the enthusiasm of his 
followers, Perhaps, as Godet suggests, their words ' accompanied 
with an irritated and anxious look toward the citadel of Antonia, the 
residence of the Roman garrison. This look seemed to say ' Seest 
thou . . . . ? Are not the Romans there ? Wilt thou destroy us ? ' 
Jesus' reply was that the very stones would cry out if 

The Stones th^gg held their peace. No power could repress the 

fact that here was the true Messiah. No hearts, less 

hard than stones, could repress their enthusiasm. Mark Antony 

says, 

" ' Put a tongue 
In every wound of Caesar, that should move 
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.' 



XXI: 17-21 MATTHEW 857 



A.I>. 30. 
Monday, 

April 2. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 



MOUNT OP 

OLIVES. 

THE 

WITHERED 
FIG TREE. 



17. T And he left tJiem, and went out of the city into Beth- 
any ; and he lodged there. 

18. Now in the morning, as he returned into the city, he 
hungered. 

19. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, 
and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, 
Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And pres- 
ently the fig tree withered away. 4 

20. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, 
How soon is the fig tree withered away ! 

21. Jesus answered and said unto them. Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, 
and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is do?te to the fig tree, but also if ye 
shall say unto this mountain. Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea ; it shall 
be done. 

" The Stones of Jerusalem, when not one was left upon another, 
did cry out. ' The superscription at Salzburg, in the rocks, ' Te saxa 
loquntur,' is now history." — Oosterzee. 

Stones of Nineveh, Babylon, Egypt, tombs and temples still cry 
out the truth of God's word and his Gospel. 



19. Let no Fruit Grow on Thee. -The punishment for not 
bearing fruit is the loss of power to bear fruit. In one number of 
the " Household Words," Dickens describes a visit to what he calls 
Skitzland. A man, digging a hole in his garden, broke through the 
crust of the earth, and fell into the interior. Here he found a 
strange land, the peculiarity of which was, that, while 
every person was born physically perfect, at a certam age landers 
any part of the body which had not been used was lost 
entirely, leaving only the bones. Thus a coachman had only stom- 
ach and hands ; a lawyer had no legs, but a massive jaw ; some 
fashionable young ladies were only a pair of eyes and a bunch of 
nerves ; the schoolmaster had only his heart left. There is a large 
measure of truth in this as to the spiritual life. The punishment for 
not doing good and bearing fruit to God, is the loss of power and 
opportunity to bear fruit. 



21. If Ye HAVE Faith. — Jeremiah's Land Purchase. — We read 
in Jeremiah xxxii. 6-15 that the prophet during the siege bought a 
piece of land on which the Chaldean army were encamped, showing 
his perfect faith in the Word of God which he preached and in the 



358 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 21 

promise of a return from captivity. The deeds were written on a 
clay tablet, as in Nineveh at that time. This reminds us of the 
Roman, who, nearly 400 years later, bought, at its full price, the land 
on which Hannibal's army was encamped outside the gates of Rome 
(see Livy, xxvi. 11). Both are good illustrations of faith. 



Ye Shall Say unto this Mountain. — What did the disciples 
understand by this ? A real mountain, or obstacles as great as 
mountains .f* Their actions and the actual results show that they 
understood " mountain " as a type. If I were to say to a man under 

great temptation, for instance a drinking man strug- 
Mo^^tain^ gling with an appetite for strong drink, Christ will help 

you to conquer this dragon, and with the same weapons 
with which Christian overcame Apollyon and his fiery darts, — would 
any one dream that a real dragon like the one with multitudinous 
coils described in Spencer's " Fairy Queen," or seen in the pictures of 
St. George and the Dragon, or a literal monster breathing literal 
fire ? Not even a child would so interpret it. 



What Mountains the Disciples had to Remove.— A little 
band of twelve unlearned men, without money, without armies, 
without rank, without everything that would seem able to do the 
work, had to conquer the Roman empire, with wealth and authority, 
and the best soldiers in the world. Removing Mount Olivet would 
be child's play to this. 

They had to conquer the human heart, entrenched in sins, luxury, 
fashion, habit, social customs interwoven with the whole daily life. 
What were Tabor or Hermon to this hopeless task ? Yet they did 
these things. The promise was fulfilled. 



Removing Mountains. — If one tyrant should command a man 
to move a railroad train he might push with his hands forever and 
be utterly unable to move it a hair's breadth ; but if he turns the 
lever that lets on the steam he can move it with perfect ease. Much 
of the work the Lord gives his people to do is as hard as to remove 
mountains; hnt fazlk is the lever that applies the power of God ; and 
the weakest saint, strong in faith and using God's power, can do 
mighty works, beyond the power of even angels' strength. 



XXI : 22 MATTHEW 359 



22. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believ- 
ing, ye shall receive. 



POWER OF PRAYER. 



A.I>. 30. 
Monday, 

April 3. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

MOUNT OP 
OLIVES. 

PEAYER. 



More things are wrought by prayer 

Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let 4- 

thy voice 
Rise like a fountain for me night and day ; 
For what are men better than sheep or goats, 
That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer, 
Both for themselves and those who call them friends ? 
For so the whole round earth is every way 
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God." 

— Tennyson s Idyls of the King, The Passing of Arthur, 



22. Whatsoever ye Shall ask in Prayer Believing, etc. — 
Whatsoever is the only word that suffices the needs of man. If 
God answers some prayers and not others, we cannot know when to 
trust him. In Longfellow's " Tales of a Wayside Inn " he describes 
the Theologian as one 

" Who studied still with deep research 
To build the Universal Church, — 
Lofty as the love of God 
And ample as the wants of man." 

Any promise that God would give must be 

" Lofty as the love of God," 
and any promise that is sufficient for man must be 

" Ample as the wants of man," 

including the whole range of his needs, at all times, in all places, 
under all circumstances. 

A Peculiar Promise. — In Mark xi. 24 (R. V.), the promise is 
" Believe that ye have received them and ye shall have them." This 
is a strange expression, and yet its truth and blessing can be easily 
seen through familiar transactions. 



360 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 23-27 



23. TI And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of 
the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest 
thou these things ? and who gave thee this authority ? 

24. And Jesus answered and said unto them, I also will ask you one thing, which 
if ye tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things, 

25. The baptism of John, whence was it ? from heaven, or of men ? And they 
reasoned with themselves, saying. If we shall say. From heaven ; he will say unto us, 
Why did ye not then believe him ? 

26. But if we shall say, Of men ; we fear the people ; for all hold John as a 
prophet. 

27. And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, 
Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. 

A boy asks his father for an education. He promises to give it to 
him ; the money will be forthcoming in due time. If the 
- ^s^^ins boy trusts his father's word, and believes that he has 
Education. I'^ceived, then in due time he shall receive his educa- 
tion in college and professional school. It will take him 
years to obtain it. 

Or a friend promises you a trip to Europe and gives you a check 

to cover the expense. If you believe he means it, 

A Check ^^^^ ^j^^^ j^jg f^^ds will honor the check, /. <?., if you 

Promise, believe you have received the favor, then you shall have 

it in course of time as you travel from land to land. 
Every bank check involves the same principles, believing in its 
promise, you act as if you had received. 

The larger part of our prayers for the best things must be an- 
swered in this way. The answer is given and laid up in the Delayed 
Blessings Office. 

Reference. A number of illustrations on Prayer and its Answer 
will be found under vii. 7-12. 



Prayer makes a person a magazine of power, 

God answers in kind or in kindness." — CeczV. 



Faith's Optimism. — "The refuge which prayer affords is not the 
refuge of cowardice, which shuts its eyes to danger, but of courage 
which looks it full in the face. The optimism of piety is not an 
optimism which looks on the bright side of things, but one which 
dares look on the worst side, and yet believes that there is One 
higher than the highest." — Lyman Abbott. 



XXI : 28-32 MATTHEW 361 



A.B. 30. 
Tuesday, 

April ^. 
IN THE TE3IPLE. 

PAR,\BLE 

OF THE 

TWO SONS. 



28. TI But what think ye ? A certain man had two sons ; 
and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my 
vineyard, 

29. He answered and said, I will not ; but afterward he re- 
pented, and went. 

30. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he 
answered and said, I go, sir ; and went not. *^ "^ 

31. Whether of them twain did the will of his father ? They say unto him. The 
first. Jesus saith unto them. Verily 1 say unto you, That the pubUcans and the har- 
lots go into the kingdom of God before you. 

32. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not ; 
but the pubhcans and the harlots believed him : and ye, when ye had seen it^ 
repented not afterward, that ye might believe him. 

Faith " reels not in the storm of warring words, 

She brightens at the clash of ' Yes ' and ' No,' 

She sees the Best that glimmers through the Worst, 

She feels the sun is hid but for a night, 

She spies the summer through the winter bud, 

She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls. 

She hears the lark within the songless &%%, 

She finds the fountain where they wailed ' Mirage.' " 

— Tennysoiis The Ancient Sage. 



Library. — One of Longfellow's Poems, " The Beleagured City," 
is founded on an old legend that the city of Prague was once 
besieged by an army of evil spirits ; but when the cathedral bell 
sounded the hour of prayer, the prayers of the saints were mightier 
than the evil spirits, and the besieging army 

" Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, 
And as silently steal away. 

" I have read in the marvelous heart of man. 
That strange and mystic scroll, 
That an army of phantoms, vast and wan. 
Beleaguer the human soul. 

"And when the solemn and deep church-bell 
Entreats the soul to pray. 
The midnight phantoms feels the spell, 
The shadows sweep away. 



362 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 33-42 

33. ^ Hear another parable : There was a certain householder, which planted a 
vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, 
and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country : 

34. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husband- 
men, that they might receive the fruits of it. 

35. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and 
stoned another. 

36. Again, he sent other servants more than the first : and they did unto them 
likewise. 

37. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. 

38. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is 
the heir ; come let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. 

39. And they caught and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. 

40. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those 
husbandmen t 

41. They say unto him. He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will 
let out ^/j' vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their 
seasons. 

42. Jesus saith unto them. Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the 
builders rejected, the same is become the head of the comer : this is the Lord's doing, 
and it is marvellous in our eyes > 

" Down the broad Vale of Tears afar 
The spectral camp is fled ; 
Faith shineth as a morning star ; 
Our ghastly fears are dead." 



33. Modern Vineyards. — 77^^ ^i?^ is a vineyard that is entrusted 
to our care, to be well treated as an instrument for doing God's 
work. A good workman always takes good care of his tools. " The 
human body is one of the most glorious things in the world." 
" Years ago, Dr. Todd, of Pittsfield, Mass., wrote a book called ' The 
House I Live In,' and in it he fascinated the young reader by his 
description of the human body. — Schauffler. 

The mind is still more wonderful, and should be educated, trained, 
kept pure and bright, that it may bring forth fruit for the master. 

The soul, the very self — the citadel, the dwelling-place of the moral 
nature, the fountain of character — is a vineyard that should be kept 
with all diligence, "for out of it are the issues of life." 

The church is a vineyard for us to cultivate for Christ. 

The Nation is a vineyard intrusted to our care. Patriotism is a 
religious duty. 

42. The Stone which the Builders Rejected. — "In the 



XXI : 42, 43 MATTHEW 363 



43. Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be 
taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
thereof. 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday, 

April 4. 
IN THE TEMPLE. 
PASSION WEEK. 

THE 
REJECTED 

STONE. 



primary meaning of the psalm the illustration 
seems to have been drawn from one of the stones, 
quarried, hewn, and marked, away from the site 
of the temple, which the builders, ignorant of the head archi- 
tect's plans, or finding on it no mark (such as recent explorations 
in Jerusalem have shown to have been placed on the stones of 
Solomon's temple in the place where they v/ere quarried, to indicate 
their position in the future structure of the fabric), had put on one 
side as having no place in the building, but which was found after- 
wards to be that on which the completeness of the structure de- 
pended — on which, as the chief corner-stone, the two walls met and 
were bonded together." — Plumptre. 

" The great corner-stones in all world-famous causes have been 
stones which the builder rejected ; e.£-., unpopular principles, unwel- 
come truths, unconventional, but consecrated men." — Glover. 

Compare Acts iv. 13 ; i Cor. i. 26, 27. But the fact that a stone is 
rejected does not make it a corner-stone. 



The Rejected Stone. — " There is a tradition of the Jewish rab- 
bis which relates the history of a wonderful stone, prepared as they 
say, for use in the building of Solomon's temple. Each block for that 
matchless edifice was shaped and fitted for its particular place, and 
came away from the distant quarry marked for the masons. But 
this one v/as so different from any other that no one knew what to 
do with it. Beautiful, indeed, it was; carved with figures of exquis- 
ite loveliness and grace ; but it had no fellow ; it fitted nowhere ; 
and at last the impatient and perplexed workmen flung it aside as only 
a splendid piece of folly. Years passed while the proud structure 
was going up without the sound of ax or hammer. During all the 
time, this despised fragment of rock was lying in the valley of Je- 
hoshaphat covered with dirt and moss. Then came the day of dedi- 
cation ; the vast throng arrived to see what the Israelites were wont 
to call 'the noblest fabric under the sun,' There it stood, crowning 
the mountain's ridge, and shining with whiteness of silver and yel- 
lowness of gold. The wondering multitudes gazed admiringly upon 
its magnificent proportions, grand in their splendor of marble. But 



364: SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXI : 44-46 

44. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken : but on whomsoever it 
shall fall, it will grind him to powder. 

45. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they per- 
ceived that he spake of them. 

46. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because 
they took him for a prophet. 

when one said that the east tower was unfinished, or, at least, looked 
so, the chief architect grew impatient again, and replied that Solo- 
mon was wise, but a builder must admit there was a gap in his plans. 
By and by the king drew near in person ; with his retinue he rode 
directly to the incomplete spot, as if he there expected most to be 
pleased. ' Why is this neglect ? ' he asked in tones of indignant sur- 
prise. ' Where is the piece I sent for the head of this corner ? ' Then 
suddenly the frightened workmen bethought themselves of that 
rejected stone which they had been spurning as worthless. They 
sought it again, cleared it from its defilement, swung it fairly up into 
its place, and found it was indeed the top stone fitted so as to give 
the last grace to the whole." — C. S. RoM?ison, 



44. Grind Him to Powder. 

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding 

small ; 
Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he 

all." 



XXII: I 



MATTHEW 



365 



CHAPTER XXII. 



I. And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by para- 
bles, and said, 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday, 

April 4. 

PASSION WEEK. 

IN THE TE3IPLE. 

THE 

MAEKIAGE 

FEAST. 



i-io. Compare the parable of the Great Sup- 
per, in Luke xiv. 16-24. 

" The two," says Monroe Gibson, " have many- 
features in common. It is astonishing to see what 
needless difficulties some people make for themselves by the utterly 
groundless assumption that our Lord would never use 
the same illustration a second time. Why should he parables. 
not have spoken of the gospel as a feast, not twice 
merely, but fifty times .'' " 

Every great teacher or preacher repeats his illustrations. One of 
Henry Ward Beecher's hearers told me that he frequently repeated 
certain illustrations. Archbishop Whately repeats some of his best 
in his different books. 



Two Talmud Parables. — "Wiinsche cites no less than three 
parables from the Talmud more or less like the one we are consid- 
ering, (i) The first is of a king who asks guests to a feast, not tell- 
ing them when it was to be, but bidding them prepare for it by 
bathing, washing their garments, etc. Those anxious to be present 
watch at the door of the palace for symptoms of the feast. The 
easy-minded go about their business, and are taken by surprise, and 
come in e very-day attire to be rejected. The moral is : Watch, for 
5^e know not the day of death. (2) The second is of a king who in- 
vited to a feast, and bade the guests bring each a seat. The guests 
brought all sorts of things — carpets, stools, pieces of wood, etc. 
The king ordered that each should sit on what he had brought. 
Those who brought poor seats complained. Vv^ere these seats for a 
palace ? The king replied, they had themselves to blame. Moral ; 
We shall fare as we deserve." — Professor Bruce, 



866 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXII : 2, 3 



2. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for 
his son. 

3. And sent forth his servants to call them that they were bidden to the wedding : 
and they would not come. 

2. A Marriage (feast) for His Son. — The son is Jesus the Christ. 

„, ^ . , We have in Rev. xxi. and xxii. a most deliarhtful picture 
The Bride. ^ ^ 

of the "Lamb's wife," — "a bride adorned for her hus- 
band," inconceivably beautiful — the church washed from her sins, 
clothed in white, her loving heart given in virgin simplicity and 
purity to her glorious Husband, her Jesus — at once Lover, Lord, 
and King. 



The Gospel a Marriage Feast.— The feast, which celebrates 
the marriage, expresses the abundance, the joyousness, the social 
pleasures, the satisfaction of every want, the variety, " the feast of 
reason and the flow of soul," found in the religious life (Isa. xxv. 
6 ; Ixv. 13) ; that life is not all " a grinding at the mill," a time of toil 
and sacrifice, but also of spiritual refreshments, of joys unspeakable, 
of exquisite satisfaction and rest. Even the hard duties are sweet 
because inspired by love ; they are the alabaster boxes of precious 
ointment poured out upon the loved one. 

As a marriage feast, the emphasis lies on the ideal love and friend- 
ship between Christ and his people, the delight in one another, the 
intimate fellowship of feeling, of purpose, of work, of character, and 
of home. 



3. Call Them that were Bidden. — Because they had no time- 
pieces, and the hour when the feast could be ready was very uncer- 
tain. This custom is not now observed " very strictly among the 
common people, nor in cities where western manners 
in Modern i^ have greatly modified the Oriental; but in Lebanon it 
Times. still prevails. If a sheik beg, or emeer invites, he al 
ways sends a servant to call you at the proper time. 
This servant often repeats the very formula mentioned in Luke xiv. 
17 : ' Come, for the supper is ready.' The fact that this custom is 
mainly confined to the wealthy and nobility is in strict agreement 
with the parable, where the certain man who made the feast, and 
bade many, is supposed to be of this class." — Dr. Thomson, 



XXII : 4-8 MATTHEW 367 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday, 

April 4. 
PASSION WEEK. 
IN THE TEMPLE. 

THE 
MAEEIAGE 

FEAST. 



4. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them 
which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner : my 
oxen and my fatUngs are kiUed, and all things are ready : come 
unto the marriage. 

5. But they made light of z/", and went their ways, one to his 
farm, another to his merchandise : 

6. And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them . 
spitefully, and slew them. 

7. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth : and he sent forth his armies, 
and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 

8. Then saith he to his servants. The wedding is ready, but they which were bid- 
den were not worthy. 

Library. — 5. "Made light of it." See short story or fable by- 
Jane Taylor of an inhabitant of Mars coming to this world. 



Making Light of Christ's Invitations. — "A man who used to 
go every morning with head bent, trembling limbs, uncertain gait, 
to the shop where liquor was sold, was met by some men who of- 
fered him his day's food, a good place to sleep, opportunity to bathe 
and be comfortable, books to read, clothing for the present neces- 
sity, and more as soon as he could earn them ; in short, all he 
needed, except the chance of turning something into 
liquor; and the arrangement to continue till he had ^f j^i\ ^^^ 
so mastered himself, and recovered from his body's de- 
pendence on drink, that he could be a man again. But he refused. 
He went to the shop, spent his last cent for liquor — his morning 
dram ; and then about the village for a chance to earn another 
dram. By cleaning out the spittoons of the hotel, carrying away 
oyster shells from the saloons, and emptying the garbage barrels of 
the grocers, he earned enough to get drunk. 

" Many a father has a son whom he would gladly educate, if for 
no other purpose than to enable him to enjoy the competence or 
riches that will be his inheritance, and the boy has refused to do 
well, and has made a wreck of life. To take the words of a good 
minister, ' Many a fond and doting parent has been forced to ex- 
claim like Aaron, almost in his words, and in a sense not so very 
different : I cast gold into the fire, and there came out this calf.' " 

— Su7tday-School Times. 



The Danger of Simple Neglect.— (i) The story of a man 
asleep in a boat in the rapids of Niagara, when the boat became 



368 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXII : 9, 10 

9. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the 
marriage, 

10. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as 
many as they found, both bad and good : and the wedding was furnished with guests. 

loose, and floated toward the falls. (2) The two boys in a boat on 
the edge of the Maelstrom, unconsciously circling nearer and nearer 
to the central whirlpool. They need not row toward destruction. 
Simple neglect will soon bring them there. 

9, 10. Go THEREFORE UNTO THE HIGHWAYS GATHERED 

BOTH Bad and Good. — The good because they belonged there ; 
the bad to make them good. The toast, " Our country right or 
wrong," is good if we understand it to mean, if it is right, to keep it 
right ; if wrong, to make it right. 



Paganini. — One of the greatest triumphs of the famous Italian 
violinist, Paganini, was on an instrument with a single string. 
" He shambled awkward on the stage, the while 
Across the waiting audience swept a smile. 
With clumsy touch, when first he drew the bow 
He snapped a string. The audience tittered low. 
Another stroke ! Off flies another string ! 
With laughter now the circling galleries ring. 
Once more ! The third string breaks its quivering strands. 
And hisses greet the player as he stands. 
He stands — awhile his genius, unbereft, 
Is calm, — One string and Paganini left. 
He plays. The one string's daring notes uprise 
Against the storm as if they sought the skies. 
A silence falls ; then awe ; the people bow. 
And they who erst had hissed are weeping now ; 
And when the last note, trembling, died away, 
So7ne shouted Bravo ! some had learned to pray'* 

Many a man is a harp with many a broken string, imperfect, de- 
fective ; but if he will yield to the influences of the Holy Spirit, God 
can bring forth heavenly music from his soul. From an outcast of 
the highways, he can become a gacst at the marriage feast of the 
Lamb. 

Reference. See illustrations under xiv. 20, " Gather up the frag- 
ments," 



XXII : 9, 10 MATTHEW 369 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday, 

April i,. 
PASSION "WEEK. 

THE 
WEDDING 
GARMENT. 



Good from the most Unpromising. — Lord 
Kelvin, the distinguished scientist, lately said that 
he thought the most remarkable and useful recent 
invention was the conversion of garbage into 
light. Others besides Victor Hugo have pointed 
out the great extravagance of our usual methods 
of disposing of the refuse of great cities. The 
menace to health involved in these methods the doctors have 
shown, and there has been no need for any one to enlarge on the 
offensiveness of them. Efforts have been made to use some of the 
material for enriching the land ; but the experiment that is most 
noteworthy at present is that at Shoreditch, London, 
where garbage is used for fuel in engines that thus be- ^^ "™ 
come the means of transforming the dust of the city 
into electric lights. Heat and power, as well as light, are also sup- 
plied. The destruction of offal, instead of being an expense, has 
now become profitable. It is planned to carry the economy further 
by finding a market for the ashes left, which can be used in place of 
sand in mortar and for making concrete. We have much to learn of 
the use that can be made of what is now wasted, and American 
communities may well study the example now set them in England. 



The Wedding Garment.—" The rejection of a gift, or the ap- 
pearance of a slight put upon it, is ever naturally esteemed as a slight 
and contempt, not of that gift only, but also of the giver. So strongly 
is this felt, that we are not without example in the modern his- 
tory of the East (and Eastern manners so little change that modern 
examples are nearly as good as ancient) of a vizier having lost his 
life through this very failing to wear a garment of honor sent to him 
by the king. Chardin mentions the circumstance. The officer 
through whose hands the royal robe was to be forwarded, out of 
spite sent in its stead a plain habit. The vizier would not appear in 
the city arrayed in this, lest it should be taken as an evidence that 
he was in disgrace at court, and put on, in its stead, a royal habit, 
the gift of the late king, and in that made his public entry into the 
city. When this was known at court, they declared the vizier a dog 
that he had disdainfully thrown away the royal apparel, saying, 
' I have no need of Sha Sefi's habits ! ' Their account incensed the 
king, who severely felt the affront, and it cost the vizier his life. 
Olearius (Travels) gives an account of himself, with the ambassa- 



370 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXII : II 



II. lif And when the king came in to see the gfuests, he saw there a man which had 
not on a wedding garment : 

dors whom he accompanied, being invited to the table of the Per- 
sian king. He goes on to say, ' It was told us by the ambassador 
that we, according to their usage, must hang the splendid vests that 
were sent us from the king over our dresses, and so appear in his 
presence.' There was, strictly speaking, no changing of apparel, for 
the garment of honor was either a vest drawn over the other gar- 
ments, or a mantle hung on the shoulders. Schulz, in his Travels, 
describes that given to him as ' a long robe with loose sleeves, which 
hang down (for the arm is not put into them), the white ground of 
which is goat's hair, mixed with some silver, but the flowers woven 
in are of gold-colored silk ' ; and his account of the necessity of put- 
ting it on before appearing in the presence of the sultan agrees with 
that given by the earlier traveler." 

— Rosenmullers Alte und Neue Morgenl., Vol. V.,p.']6. 



Wedding Garments of Sultan Mahmoud. — At the royal mar- 
riage of Sultan Mahmoud, a few years ago, every guest invited to 
the wedding had made expressly for him, at the expense of the Sul- 
tan, a wedding garment. No one, however dignified his station, was 
permitted to enter into the presence-chamber of that sovereign with- 
out a change of raiment. This was formerly the universal custom 
in the East. But inasmuch as these garments were very costly, and 
some of the guests might plead poverty, and thus appear unclad in 
the guest-chamber of the king, the cost was defrayed at the Sultan 
Mahmoud's expense. To each guest was presented a suit of wed- 
ding garments. Had any, therefore, appeared before this absolute 
sovereign without the wedding garment, the Sultan would have 
deemed his dignity insulted, and his munificent gifts despised. It 
would be an avowal that he denied his authority and despised his 
power. 

" It is a custom in some districts of England to give to all who 
are invited to their funerals a scarf of black silk, large, conspicuous, 
and expensive ; given by the one who invites, and worn by all who 
accept. A single person without this badge would be instantly de- 
tected, and the omission would be a token of disrespect." — Arnoi. 



XXII : 12-28 MATTHEW 3Y1 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday, 

April 4. 

PASSION WEEK. 

TEMPTING 

QUESTIONS. 

1. TRIBUTE 

TO CuESAR. 

2. MARRIAGE 

IN HEAVEN. 



12. And he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in 
hither not having a wedding garment .> And he was speech- 
less. 

13. Then said the king to the servants. Bind him hand and 
foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness ; 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

14. For many are called, but few are chosen. 

15. \ Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they 
might entangle him in his talk, *i* ^ 

16. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Hero- 

dians, saying. Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in 
truth, neither carest thou for any man : for thou regardest not the person of men. 

17. Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou ? Is it lawful to give tribute unto 
Cesar, or not ? 

18. But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye 
hypocrites ? 

19. Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. 

20. And he saith unto them. Whose is this image and superscription ? 

21. They say unto him, Cesar's. Then saith he unto them. Render therefore unto 
Cesar the things which are Cesar's ; and unto God the things that are God's, 

22. When they had heard these words ^ they marvelled, and left him, and went 
their way. 

23. \ The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resur- 
rection, and asked him, 

24. Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall 
marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 

25. Now there were with us seven brethren : and the first, when he had married a 
wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother : 

26. Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 

27. And last of all the woman died also. 

28. Therefore in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven ? for they 
all had her. 

12. He was Speechless. — e(t)ifi6drj, he was muzzled, from ^i\ik, a 
muzzle, or gag. The same word is used in Mark (iv. 39), where 
Jesus says to the stormy sea, " Peace, be still." The guest's con- 
sciousness of wrong stopped every flow of excuse. 



20. The Image and Superscription of God. — In the United 
States Mint is an instrument resembling a hand, which is filled with 
blank pieces of metal, and carries them to a die which stamps them 
one by one with a clear and beautiful impress, and thus changes 
them into coins which bear the mark and authorization of the gov- 
ernment. So it is that every good thing comes to us with the image 



372 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXII : 29-38 



29. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, 
nor the power of God. 

30. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are 
as the angels of God in heaven. 

31. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was 
spoken unto you by God, saying, 

32. I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ? 
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 

33. And when the multitude heard this^ they were astonished at his doctrine. 

34. \ But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, 
they were gathered together, 

35. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked hz'm a question^ tempting him, 
and saying, 

36. Master, which is the great commandment in the law ? 

37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 

38. This is the first and great commandment. 

of God upon it, and the superscription of His love. There is noth- 
ing good in our lives but is thus marked as from heaven, and 
demands that we return our tributes of love to Him. 



29. Not Knowing the Scriptures.— (i) Sometimes the Scrip- 
tures are misrepresented, as if one were dressed up in such strange 
clothes that his friends did not know him. (2) Men often read, not 
to find what is in the Bible, but to find what they want in it. So 
Ruskin says that the people see in nature not all there is, but what 
they look for. (3) Men look at the Bible with prejudice, as if 
through a colored glass or one of those mirrors which distort the 
features. 



The Artificial Bee. — " A man said to a friend of his that he 
had made an artificial bee that was so natural he would challenge any 
man to tell the difference, and it would buzz like a live bee ; and the 
man said, ' Put the two bees down together and I will tell you which 
is the live bee and which is the artificial bee.' He put down a drop 
of honey, and the live bee went to the honey. The artificial bee 
went buzzing round — he didn't know anything about honey. Well, 
I will admit these artificial Christians know nothing about the Word 
of God, but the real, true child of God knows honey every time ; and 
I thank God we are willing to give them the honey." 

— Dwight L. Moody, 



XXII : 39-46 MATTHEW 3Y3 

__ — __ ^ 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday, 

April 4. 

PASSION WEEK. 

TEMPTING 

QUESTIONS. 

3. THE 
GREAT 
COMMAND- 
MENT. 

CHRIST'S 
QUESTION 



IN RETURN. 



39. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bour as thyself. 

40. On these two commandments hang all the law and the 
prophets. 

41. TI While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus 
asked them, 

42. Saying, What think ye of Christ ? whose son is he ? 
They say unto him. The Son of David. 

43. He saith unto them. How then doth David in spirit call 
him Lord, saying, 

44. The Lord saith unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right 
hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool ? 

45. If David then caU him Lord, how is he his son ? 

46. And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that 
day forth ask him any more questions. 

Library. — 37-40. Prof. Drummond's "Greatest Thing in the 
World "; Leigh Hunt's Poems, " Abou Ben Adhem, may his Tribe 
Increase," 

Reference. See on chapter xix. 19. 



Love. — The heart of love is a fountain of living waters, and the 
commandments are the channels through which the streams flow 
out. The commandments are the fences by the roadside which 
show Love the way in which it should go. 



Loving God with All the Heart.— He that has this love in 
his heart has the fountain and source of all virtue. It is to the 
life what the mainspring is to a watch, what a fountain is to a 
stream, what the soul is to the body, what the two olive trees of 
Zechariah's vision were to the lamps they fed. It will express itself 
in love to man. It is the work of Christianity first of all to implant 
this principle of love in the heart ; and when this is done, all the 
great practical questions that vex the world will be settled, the diffi- 
culties be removed, the wrongs destroyed. 



Love to God and love to man are like two magnets placed in con- 
nection, each one makes the other stronger. 

The law that we love others as ourselves is not to restrain us from 
loving ourselves, but to be the measure of love to others, and the 



374 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXII : 39-46 

impulse to a higher love of them. It does not say to our love of self, 
Come down lower, but to the love of our neighbor, Come up higher. 



The Measure of Love. — The difficulties that many feel in their 
deep love of friends, of children, lest they love them too much and 
become idolaters, is well met in Miss Havergal's " Kept for the Mas- 
ter's Use " by a quotation from " Under the Surface " on this sub- 
ject. Eleanor says to Beatrice : 

" I tremble when I think 
How much I love him ; but I turn away 
From thinking of it, just to love him more; — 
Indeed, I fear, too much." 

" Dear Eleanor, 
Do you love him as much as Christ loves us ? 
Let your lips answer me." 

"Why ask me, dear? 
Our hearts are finite, Christ is infinite." 

" Then till you reach the standard of that love, 
Let neither fears nor well-meant warning voice 
Distress you with 'too much.' For He hath said 
How much — and who shall dare to change his measure — 
* That ye should love AS I have loved you.' 
O sweet command, that goes so far beyond 
The mightiest impulse of the tenderest heart ! 
A bare permission had been much ; but He 
Who knows our yearnings and our fearfulness. 
Chose graciously to bid us do the thing 
That makes our earthly happiness, 
A limit that we need not fear to pass, 
Because we cannot. Oh, the breadth and length. 
And depth and height of love that passeth knowledge ! 
Yet Jesus said, ' As I have loved you.' " 

" O Beatrice, I long to feel the sunshine 
That this should bring ; but there are other words 
Which fall in chill eclipse. 'Tis written, * Keep 
Yourselves from idols.' How shall 1 obey?" 

'* Oh, not by loving less, but loving more. 
It is not that we love our precious ones 
Too much, but God too little. As the lamp 
A miner bears upon his shadowed brow 
Is only dazzling in the grimy dark, 
And has no glare against the summer sky, 
So, set the tiny torch of our best love 
In the great sunshine of the love of God, 
And, though full fed and fanned, it casts no shade 
And dazzles not, o'erflowed with mightier light." 



XXIII : 1-6 



MATTHEW 



375 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



^- 



1. Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, 

2. Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat : 

3. All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that ob- 
serve and do ; but do not ye after their works : for they say, 
and do not. 

4. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, 
and lay them on men's shoulders ; but they themselves will not 
move them with one of their fingers. 

5. But all their works they do for to be seen of men : they *^ * 
make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their 

garments, 

6. And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues 



A.D. 30. 
Tuesday, 

April 4. 



LAST DAT IN 
THE TEMPLE. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

THE PHARISEES 
AS A WARNING. 



3. They Say and Do Not. — An American privateer was once 

chased by an English man-of-war in the Bay of Fundy, and the latter 

was gaining on the privateer, when the American captain thought of 

the swiftness of the tide in that bay, which sometimes 

rises to the height of 60 feet, and he cast anchor. The ^ ^^!1* f 
=" Bay of Fundy. 

tide had been carrying both ships back faster than the 
wind had driven them forward, so that the anchored ship really got 
ahead faster over the surface of the water than the pursuing vessel 
with all sails set, and in a short time the English vessel was out of 
sight. So, oftentimes, a bad life, an imperfect example, a wrong 
character, carry those whom we would influence in the wrong direc- 
tion, faster than our advice and our words move them in the right. 



The Assistant Teacher. — Edward Everett Hale has a story 
called " My Double and How he Undid Me." Every one of us has 
his double, and he often goes a long way toward our undoing. In 
an article addressed to teachers, in one number of Mr. Cook's Pri- 
mary Teacher, the subject was "Our Assistant Teacher," — Our 
character and conduct, both in the class and in our daily life, as con- 
trasted with what we teach by words. This assistant teacher is the 
making or marring of our influence. If the teacher does not pre- 
pare his lesson, how can he expect his scholars to } If he is inatten- 
tive to the opening exercises, or to the prayer, if he does not sing, 
if he does any of the things he wishes his scholars not to do, all 



376 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXIII : /-1 2 



7. And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. 

8. But be not ye called Rabbi : for one is your Master, even Christ ; and all ye are 
brethren. 

g. And call no man your father upon the earth : for one is your Father, which is 
in heaven. 

10. Neither be ye called masters : for one is your Master, even Christ. 

11. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. 

12. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased ; and he that shall humble 
himself shall be exalted. 

he can say will have far less power for good than his example will 
have for evil. 

^SCHINES ON THE Crown. — In that great argument, says Wen- 
dell Phillips, which gave us the two most consummate orations of 
antiquity, the question was whether Athens should grant Demos- 
thenes a crown. " Demosthenes' speech is the masterpiece of all 
eloquence. Of the Accusation by ^schines it is praise enough to 
say that it stands second only to that." Demosthenes wished to be 
crowned before the people, as one worthy of that highest honor. 
But he had run away in the time of battle, and ^schines declared 
that it was fatal to crown such a man. " You know well," he said, 
"that it is not music, nor the gymnasium, nor the schools that 
mould young men ; it is much more the public proclamations, the 
public example. If you take one whose life has no high purpose — one 
who mocks at morals — and crown him in a theatrum; every boy who 

sees it is corrupted The character of a city is determined by 

the character of the men it crowns." 



Reference. — On verse 11. See chapter xx. 28. 



II. He that is Greatest among You shall be Your Ser- 
vant. 

" Thyself and thy belongings 

Are not thine own so proper as to waste 

Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee. 

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do, 

Not light them for themselves ; for if our virtues 

Did not go forth from us, 'twere all alike 

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely toiached 

But to fine issues : nor nature never lends 



LAST DAT IN 
THE TEMPLE. 

PASSION 
WEEK. 

THE PHARISEES 
AS A WARNING. 



XXIII: 13-16 MATTHEW 377 

^ ^ 

13. ^ But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! A.D. 30. 
for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men : for ye Tuesday, 
neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are enter- April 4. 
ing to go in. 

14. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make long prayer : 
therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 

15. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye 
compass sea and land to make one proselyte ; and when he is *** 
made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than your- 
selves. 

16. Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say. Whosoever shall swear by the tem- 
ple, it is nothing ; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a 
debtor ! 

The smallest scruple of her excellence, 

But like a a thrifty goddess, she determines 

Herself the glory of a creditor, — 

Both thanks and use." — Measure for Measure. 

Library.— Hawthorne's " Mosses from an Old Manse," where he 
imagines a new Adam and Eve coming to earth after the Day of 
Doom has swept away the whole of mankind. 



13. Woe unto You. — An infidel came to Dr. Chalmers, and said 
that Christ could not be as good as was claimed, or he 
would never have spoken such harsh words as he did to louof Lore, 
the scribes and Pharisees. Dr. Chalmers asked him to 
point out the words. He did so ; and, taking the words of our les- 
son, the doctor read them so tenderly, with such infinite pathos and 
i love, that the unbeliever acknowledged that Christ might so have 
uttered them. 

Jesus put this sign upon hypocrisy. Woe unto you, as Christian and 
Hopeful, in " Pilgrim's Progress," put up a signboard over the way 
that led to Giant Despair's castle, from which they had just escaped, 
warning men not to go that way. 



Actors on Fire. — " Some persons are like children, who, often 
seeing in the theatres malefactors in gold-embroidered tunics and 
purple mantles, crowned and dancing, admire and applaud them as 



3Y8 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXIII : 17-I9 

17. Ye fools and blind : for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanc- 
tiiieth the gold ? 

18. And, whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing ; but whosoever sweareth 
by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. 

19. Ye fools and blind : for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sancti- 
fieth the gift ? 

happy beings, until they appear on the stage goaded and scourged, 
and with fire streaming from their gay and finely wrought apparel." 

— Plutarch, 



The Touchstone. — Jesus' words were like Ithuriel's spear, as 
described by Milton, which made everything it touched to appear in 
its true nature ; as the toad at the ear of the sleeping Eve, had to 
take its real form of Satan. 

In William Allingham's ** Touchstone," a man comes, bringing a 
touchstone in his hands — 

" And tested all things in the land 
By its unerring spell." 

** The heirloom jewels prized so much, 

Were, many, changed to chips and clods. 
And even statues of the gods. 
Crushed beneath its touch." 



Hypocrites. — v-kokpltoX, actors, those who play a part upon a stage^ 
usually, in ancient times, in a mask. The player appears in one 
character, while he is really another ; the beggar may be dressed like 
a king, and a fool act the part of a wise man. Hence the word came 
to mean " the assuming of a false appearance of virtue and religion." 



Comparisons. — Christ compares hypocrites to wolves in sheep's 
clothing ; sepulchres adorned above, but full of corruption ; to 
dishes cleansed without, but foul within. St. Jude 
likens them to clouds without water. William Seeker 
says that hypocrites resemble looking-glasses, which present the 
faces which are not in them. How desirous are men to put the fair- 
est gloves upon the foulest hands, and the finest paint upon the 



XXIII : 20-22 MATTHEW 379 



20. Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by 
it, and by aU things thereon, 

21. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, 
and by him that dwelleth therein. 

22. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne 
of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 

rottenest posts ! Hypocrites are like counterfeit ^^ 
coin. " One may smile and smile and be a villain." 

" Oh, serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face ! 
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave ? " — Shakespeare, 



A.B. 30. 

Tuesday, 

April 4. 

LAST DAT IK 
THE TEMPLE. 

PASSION 
WEEK. 

THE PHARISEES 
AS A WARNING . 



Bright Sayings. — i. Some hypocrites and mortified men that 
held down their heads like bulrushes, were like the little images 
that they place in the very ban^nng of the vaults of churches, that 
look as if they held up the church, but are but puppets. — Bacon. 2. 
When a man puts on a character he is stranger to, there's as much 
difference between what he appears, and what he is really in him- 
self, as there is between a vizor and a face. — La Bruyere. 3. Saint 
abroad and devil at home. — Bunyan. 4. He stole the livery of the 
court of heaven to serve the devil in, — Pollock. 5. He was all false 
and hollow, though his tongue dropped manna. — Milto7i. 



Library, — Rogers' " Greyson Letters," " The Proper Punishment 
of Hypocrisy." 

The cure of hypocrisy is not by the giving up the outward forms and 
professions, but by a right heart and pure motive within. It is not 
in taking off the mask of virtue, — that is the punishment of hypocrisy. 
The cure is to become really what one would like to appear. 



Library. — One of the best illustrations of hypocrisy is " The 
Veiled Prophet of Khorassan," in Moore's " Lalla Rookh." To men 
he always appeared in a shining silver veil. His young follower — 

" Kneeling, pale 
With pious awe before the silver veil, 
Believes the form to which he bends the knee, 
Some pure redeeming angel sent to free 
This fettered world from every bond and stain, 
And bring its primal glories back again." 



380 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXIII : 23 

23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe of mint 
and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judg- 
ment, mercy, and faith : these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other 
undone. 

But when he took off his veil and revealed to Zelica his true fea- 
tures, he was such a monster of deformity that he exclaimed : 

" Here, judge if hell, with all its power to damn. 
Can add one curse to the foul thing I am ! " 



Paper Flower Decorations. — " I happened to reach Paris a few 
weeks ago, the day after the Czar of all the Russias left the city, and 
the whole gay metropolis was several degrees gayer than usual by rea- 
son of the wonderfully elaborate decorations in his honor. Walking 
along the Champs Elysees, the most magnificent avenue, which leads 
from the Tuilleries to the Arc de Triomphe, I was almost startled 
to see that many of the trees by the roadside were putting forth buds 
and blossoms in those bleak October days as if it were genial spring- 
time. But upon looking a little more closely, I saw that the cherry 
blossoms and peach blows and apple buds were all made of tissue 
paper, and were skillfully wired to the trees in countless thousands, 
evidently to give the Czar the impression that in his honor the sea- 
sons had been reversed, and spring for once had come in October. 
But even while I looked at these unnatural glories of the autumn, 
an army of workmen came along and began to strip the streets of 
their decorations ; and I suppose that after a day or two scarcely a 
paper blossom could be found on one of the wind-swept trees." 

—Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D. 



Library. — Dante's "Inferno." In the eighth circle, and fifth pit, 

Dante saw the hypocrites. " ' We found a painted people.' ' They 

had hoods lowered before their eyes made of the same cut as those 

of the monks in Cluny. Outwardly they are gilded so that it dazzles, 

but within all lead, and so heavy that Frederich put 

Hypocrites j^ ^ straw ' (alluding to the leaden cloaks which 

in Dante. , , 

the Emperor Frederich II. caused to be put on crim- 
inals, who were then burned to death ; which were light as straw 
in comparison with these). 'Oh, mantle wearisome for eternity.'" 

— Professor Norton's translation. 



XXIII : 24-29 MATTHEW 881 



^ ^ 



A.I>. 30. 
Tuesday, 

April 4. 

LAST DAT IN 
THE TEMPLE. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

THE PHARISEES 
AS A WARNING. 



24. Ye blind guides, which strain at a g;nat, and swallow a 
camel. 

25. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for 
ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but 
within they are fuU of extortion and excess. 

26. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the 
cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 

27. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for 
ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beauti- *** *^ 
ful outward, but are within full of dead meri's bones, and of all 

uncleanness. 

28. Even so ye outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of 
hypocrisy and iniquity. 

29. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! because ye build the tombs 
of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 

24. Strain at. — divki^ovTEq. 616.^ thoroughly or through, and ij^/C", 
\.o filter or strain. Strain at is an old misprint perpetuated. Hence 
the Rev. correctly, as Tynd., strain out. Insects were ceremonially 
unclean (Lev. xi. 20, 23, 41, 42), so that the Jews strained their wine 
in order not to swallow any unclean animal. Moreover, there were 
certain insects which bred in wine. Aristotle uses the word ^;^<ar^ 
(KuvojTTa) of a worm or larva found in the sediment of sour wine. " In 
a ride from Tangier to Tetuan I observed that a Moorish soldier who 
accompanied me, when he drank, always unfolded the end of his 
turban and placed it over the mouth of his dota, drinking through 
the muslin to strain out the gnats, whose larvae swarm in the water 
of that country" (cited by Trench, "On the Authorized Version"). 
— Professor M. R. Vincent, Word-Studies. 



29. Build the Tombs of the Prophets. — At the base of the 
Mount of Olives, not far from the temple, and possibly within sight 
when Jesus spoke these words, were four remarkable monuments 
which still stand, and " are miscalled at present the tombs of Zecha- 
riah, Absalom, Jehoshaphat and St. James. They would be conspicu- 
ous objects to any one standing on the platform of the temple." They 
seem to belong to the time of Herod. " Two of them," says Prof. 
Vincent, "were monoliths cut out of the solid rock, the others were 
merely excavations with ornamental portals." "They 

appear," says Dr. Thomson, " to be quite extensive, con- The Tombs 

: . r . ^. . . , ,, . . in Sight of 

sistmg of wmdmg or semi-circular galleries, passmg the Temple. 

under the mountain more than one hundred feet from 



382 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXIII : 3O-36 



30. And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not ha.ve been 
partakers with them in the blood of the prophets, 

31. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them 
which killed the prophets. 

32. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 

33. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of 
heU? 

34. Tf Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes : 
and some of them ye shall kill and crucify ; and some of them shall ye scourge in your 
synagogues, and persecute ihem from city to city : 

35. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from 
the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye 
Blew between the temple and the altar. 

36. Verily I say unto you. All these things shall come upon this generation. 

East to West, and terminating in a rotunda about eighty feet from 
the entrance." The reference would be all the more telling, if, as 
has been conjectured, the Pharisees were engaged in constructing 
the tombs of Zechariah and Absalom at the time that the Lord ad- 
dressed them, and if the chambered sepulchres of James and 
Jehoshaphat, lying between those two, were the sepulchres which they 
were garnishing at their entrances." 



Eulogies of the Dead. — "There are some who bestow eulo- 
giums that are really just on persons whom they had always been 
accustomed to revile, calumniate, thwart, and persecute on every oc- 
casion; and this they seemed to regard as establishing their own 
character for eminent generosity. And they usually escape the well- 
deserved reproach . . . for having been occupied in opposing and 
insulting one, who, by their own showing, deserved quite contrary 
treatment. 

" It may be fairly suspected that the one circumstance respecting 
him, which they secretly dwell on with the most satisfaction, though 
they do not mention it, is that he is dead ; according to the con- 
cluding couplet in the verses on the ' Death of Dean Swift ' : 

" ' And since you dread no further lashes. 
Methinks you may forgive his ashes.'" 

— Archbishop Whately. 

Library.— Lowell's Essays, " Dante," p. 141; Whately's "Anno- 
tations," p. 18-19. 



XXIII : 37-39 MATTHEW 883 



37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, 
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I 
have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth 
her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! 

38. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 

39. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till 
ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
Lord. 



A.D. 30. 
Tuesday, 

April 4. 

LAST DAY IN 
THE TEMPLE. 

PASSION 
WEEK. 

THE PHARISEES 
AS A WARNING. 



37. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem.— In vision he saw the most terrible 
siege on record, in which the besieged " fought for miserable scraps," 
chewed belts and shoes, and tore off the leather from their shields, 
and ate wisps of hay, and even then died by thousands from the 
horrors of famine ; 97,000 were taken prisoners, and 
1,100,000 perished. The ground around the city was ofjesus*^ 
planted thick with crosses on which Jews were crucified, 
till there was room for no more. Did he not also look beyond this to 
the more awful destiny of those whom even the infinite love of God 
could not lead to repentance ? Even in the midst of our rejoicing 
over the triumphs of Christianity, we should weep over those who 
will not be saved. 

" Ye hearts that love the Lord, 
If at this sight ye burn, 
See that in thought, in deed, in word. 

Ye hate what made him mourn." — Keble. 



Roses ON Demons.— In Retsch's illustrations of Goethe's " Faust," 
there is one plate where angels are dropping roses upon the demons 
who are contending for Faust's soul, and every rose is like molten 
metal, burning and blistering wherever it touches. 



384 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXIV : 1-8 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



1. And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple : and 
his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the 
temple. 

2. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things ? 
verily I say unto you. There shall not be left here one stone 
upon another, that shall not be thrown down. 

3. If And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples 
came unto him privately, saying, TeU us, when shall these 
things be .? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the 
end of the world ? 

4. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that 
no man deceive you. 

5. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ ; 
and shall deceive many. 

6. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars : see that ye be not troubled : 
for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 

7. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom : and there 
shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. 

8. All these are the beginning of sorrows. 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoon, 

April 4. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 



MOUNT OF 
OLIVES. 

PKOPHECIES 

OF THE 

DESTEUC- 

TION OF 

JERUSALEM, 

AND OF THE 
END OF 

THE WOELD. 



2. Not BE LEFT Here one Stone upon Another. — It is 
stated that two Jewish rabbis were crossing Zion hill in Jerusalem 
and saw a fox run by. One wept at the sight, while the other cheer- 
fully smiled. He who had laughed inquired the cause 
of the other's tears. " How can I help weeping," he re- 
plied, " when I see the threatenings against our holy 
city so exactly fulfilled ?*' "And for that reason I rejoice," said the 
other, "for the prophecies of its glorious restoration are equally 
plain and numerous ; and, as the punishment has been literally exe- 
cuted, we may the more certainly expect the accomplishment of the 
promises." 



The Two 
Rabbis. 



6. Hear of Wars and Rumors of Wars. ... be not 
Troubled. — Taking the world as it is, it is impossible that the 
kingdom of God should come without awaking opposition and wars, 
any more than one can build a house without disturbing the ground ; 
or improve a city by putting in gas, electricity, water- works, and 
electric roads, without disturbing the streets. 



XXIV : 9-14 MATTHEW 385 



g. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kiU 
you : and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 

10. And then shaU many be offended, and shall betray one 
another, and shall hate one another. 

11. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive 
many. 

12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall 
wax cold. 

13. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be 
saved. 

14. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all 
the world for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the 
end come. 

This unrest in educational and scientific and social affairs, disturb- 
ing the old foundations in many respects, reversing old 
theories and ancient customs, is not to be feared if ear- Disturbance 
nestness and truth are behind it ; because it is a sign of ^on^ife^ 
life and of progress. It is a rainbow on the storm. 



A.I>. 30, 

Tuesday 

Afternoon^ 

A/rz7 4. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

MOUNT OF 
OLIVES. 

PROPHECIES 
OF THE 
DESTRUC- 
TION OF 

JERUSALEM, 

AND OF THE 
END OF 

THE WORLD. 



12. Wax Cold. — ■fvy^aerai. "The verb means originally ifo 
breathe or blow, and the picture is that of spiritual energy blighted 
or chilled by a malign or poisonous wind." — M, R. Vincent. 



14. The Gospel shall be Preached in all the World.—- 
" I never read these words without remembering a spectacle I in 
common with thousands saw and which none that saw it can ever 
forget. It was when her Majesty the Queen visited the 
metropolis in 1842. Scarcely had the twilight darkened *J*^^ ^^^ 
into night when from every hill surrounding that most 
magnificent of cities there seemed to rise simultaneously a crest of 
fire. Each mountaineer lifted up in his hand a torch, and from Ber- 
wick to Fife, and from Fife to Sterling, the great frith was at once 
illuminated. It was a witness, it was a token to the land that its 
sovereign was near. Thus, when the Gospel beacons from Califor- 
nia to Japan are fully lit, it will be a witness, a token to the earth, 
that the end is approaching. Our part, meanwhile, is surely to go 
forward and light up from land to land the signals of this great and 
blessed advent." — Dr. George Gzlfillan. 



Library.— Scott's " Marmion," " The Fiery Cross," 



386 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXIV: 1 5, l6 



15. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel 
the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand,) 

16. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains : 

" When flits this cross from man to man, 
Clan-Alpine's summons to his clan. 
Burst be the ear that fails to heed, 
Palsied the foot that shuns to speed." 



Twice Two more than Four.— Twice two in spiritual arith- 
metic are more than two plus two. According to the promise, if 
" one can chase a thousand, two can put not two thousand, but ten 
thousand to flight." Twice two are ten. Two colors added to two 
others are four colors; multiplied, they are a cathedral window. 
Two sounds added to two others are four sounds ; multiplied, they 
are an anthem. The hope of the world's progress of the millennium 
lies in this : that the results of spiritual arithmetic are not by addi- 
tion, but by multiplication. It is not ten and one, but ten times one ; 
not ten plus ten, but ten times ten. Christianity is doing a great 
deal more than add ; it is putting in seed, each grain of which is a 
multiplier. New methods and societies and institutions are being 
developed almost every day, and each one is a multiplier. And this 
is the secret of the marvelous growth of Christianity. The first 
thousand years ended with 50,000,000 under its influence. This was 
doubled in the next 500 years, and there were 100,000,000; doubled 
again the next 300 years, and there were 200,000,000 in a.d. 1800. 
But it took only eighty years to double this again, and now there 
are more than 400,000,000 under its influence, because there never 
were so many multipliers as in these times of education and com- 
merce and invention and evolution. 

Reference. See on xiii. 32. 



Library. — Dr. Dorchester's " Religious Progress of the World "; 
Dr. A. F. Schauffler's " Religious Progress "; Dr. E. E. Hale's " Ten 
Times One is Ten." 

15. Abomination. — (ideTivyixa, from pdeTivcaofiai^ to turn ones self 
away from on account of the stench ; to feci a nausea or loathing for 
food ; anything that produces moral loathing or disgust ; an abom- 
ination. 



XXIV: 17-33 MATTHEW 387 



17. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take 
any thing out of his house : 

18. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take 
his clothes. 

19. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them 
that give suck in those days ! 

20. Put pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither 
on the sabbath day : 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoonj 

April 4. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 



MOUNT or 
OLIVES. 

THE COAMING 
OF THE 

21. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since ^ O^ Or -t> A . 
the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 

22. And except those days should be shortened, there should 

no flesh be saved : but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. 

23. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there ; believe it not. 

24. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great 
signs and wonders ; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very 
elect. 

25. Behold, I have told you before. 

26. WTierefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert ; go not forth : 
behold, he is in the secret chambers : believe it not. 

27. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west ; 
so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 

28. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. 

29. \ Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, 
and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the 
powers of the heavens shall be shaken : 

30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven : and then shall 
aU the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the 
clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 

31. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall 
gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 

32. Now leam a parable of the fig tree : When his branch is yet tender, and put- 
teth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh : 

33. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at 
the doors. 



28. The Eagles. — azroi, from hriaL, to breathe hard, to blow, " . . . . 
on account of its wind-like flight. A kind of vulture that resembles 
the eagle." — Thayer. 



Prof. Vincent says : " Aristotle notes how this bird scents its prey 
from afar, and congregates in the wake of an army. In the Russian 
war vast numbers were collected in the Crimea, and remained until 
the end of the campaign in the neighborhood of the camp, although 
previously scarcely known in the country." 



388 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXIV: 34, 35 



34. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be 
fulfilled. 

35. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. 

34. This Generation shall not Pass, etc. — Our wonder at 
this prophecy and its exact fulfilment, is enhanced when we study- 
Richard Proctor's essay on the " Doctrine of Chances," in his " Fa- 
miliar Science Studies." 



35. Heaven and Earth shall Pass Away.— "A short time 
before Hogarth was seized- with his fatal illness, he suggested pre- 
paring the ' Tail-Piece.' The first idea of the picture is said to have 
arisen while the convivial glass was circulating round Hogarth's 
own table. He began next day, and continued his design with great 
diligence, ingeniously grouping everything that could denote the end 

of all things It is a very remarkable fact, and not generally 

known, that Hogarth never again took the palette in his hand, and 
that he died about a month after he had finished the * Tail-Piece.' " 

— The Strand, 1897. 



Luther's Sign in the Heavens.—" I have been struck by a fine 
instance of this discernment of God, not in miracles, but in the or- 
dinary course of providence, which occurs in the history of Martin 
Luther. It was a time when things were going very hard with 
him, a time when all the human props of the reformation seemed 
ready to fall away. It was then that ' I saw, not long since,' cried 
Luther, ' a sign in the heavens.' Then you begin to listen for some 
startling prodigy ; a falling star, a pillar of fire, a blazing cross held 
out against the sky. Certainly some miracle is coming. But hear 
what does come. ' I was looking out of my window at night, and 
beheld the stars, and the whole majestic vault of God, held up with- 
out my being able to see the pillars on which the Master had caused 
it to rest. Men fear that the sky may fall. Poor fools ! Is not 
God always there ? ' That is all. That is his sign in the heavens." 

— Phillips Brooks. 



But my Word shall not Pass Away. — " It is in one of Verne's 
books, is it not, the story of a great astronomer who went off to th^ 



XXIV 136-42 MATTHEW 889 



A.B. 30o 

Tuesday 
Afternoons 

April ^. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

mox;nt of 

OLIVES. 

WATCHING. 



36. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not 
the angels of heaven, but my Father only. 

37. But as the days of Noe we7'e, so shall also the coming of 
the Son of man be. 

38. For as in the days that were before the flood they were 
eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the 
day that Noe entered into the ark, 

39. And knew not until the flood came, and took them all ^ »J< 

away ; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 

40. Then shall two be in the field ; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 

41. Two women shall be grinding at the mill ; the one shall be taken, and the 
other left. 

42. Watch, therefore ; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. 

frozen regions with a party to a spot which he sought whereon to 
take observations of certain heavenly bodies. They found the de- 
sired location defined by latitude and longitude. The astronomer set 
up his instruments and all went well for a time. Then 
he became disturbed. He denounced the mariner who ^^^^^ ^^^^ 

Q TIToviiifir 

led the party. The fact was, as readers will remember, Glacier. 
that the location had been ignorantly made on an im- 
mense field of apparently firm ice, and not upon the continent. 
The mistake was vital. Of what use were observations from points 
on silently and slowly moving ice ? " — Rev. A. H. Qumt, D.D. 

The one settled point in earth's history is the promise of God that 
his kingdom shall come. Only from this central point can we see 
correctly the movements of history. 



Library. — 36. "Of that day and hour knoweth no man." Kid's 
"Social Evolution," p. 134; Lecky's "History of European Morals," 
Vol. I., p. 359. Other illustrations may be found in Green's "Short 
History of the English People," where he shows how that during the 
progress of the Wars of the Roses, to which historians give most 
attention, there was really going on out of sight among the common 
people a great development which revolutionized England. The 
same is true of Florence in the times of Dante and Savonarola. 
The visible conflicts were one thing ; the real progress, scarcely no- 
ticed, was very different. 

42. Watch, — ypriyopelTe, derived from the perfect of kyeipui (to wake 
up), and hence, to have been aroused from sleep, to be awake, alert. 



390 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXIV : 43-46 



43. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the 
thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to 
be broken up. 

4^.. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man 
Cometh. 

45. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over 
his household, to give them meat in due season ? 

46. Blessed ts that seryant, whom his load when he cometh shall find so doing. 

The corresponding word in Mark xiii. 33, is derived from aypevu, 
to hunt, and virvog, sleep. " The picture is of one m pursuit of sleep, 
and, therefore, wakeful, restless," The watcher is ever on guard, like 
the lookout on a ship, or the outposts of an army. 

References. See on xxv. 1-13 and xxvi. 41. 



Ulysses AsLEEP.—Homer's " Odyssey " describes the hero Ulysses 
as falling asleep just before he reached his home, Ithaca, after a long 
voyage, and a sailor loosing the winds of ^olus during his sleep 
was the means of driving him away to many long wanderings. 



Library. — The excellent little story, " Parley the Porter," pub- 
lished as a tract, by the American Tract Society, is an unusally effec- 
tive illustration for children as to the duty of watching, the danger 
of neglect, and the way in which people are put off their guard. 

Reference. See on xxv. 13. 



Sleeping on Guard is ever punished with death, because on 
the carefulness of the watch may depend the safety of the army and 
the nation. " In the temple, during the night, the captain of the 
temple made his rounds, and the guards had to rise at his approach 
and salute him in a particular manner. Any guard found asleep on 
duty was beaten or his garments were set on fire. (Compare Rev. 
xvi. 15.)"— J/. R. Vincent. 

The Gem among Pebbles.— There is a story of a man who knew 
that among the pebbles on the seashore was one gem of great value. 
He began to throw them, one by one, into the water, and continued 
throwing for a long time without finding the precious stone, till he 



XXIV -.43-46 MATTHEW 891 



become so careless that when he did pick up the 
jewel he threw it away with the others. 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoonj 

A/rz7 4. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

MOUNT OP 
OLIVES. 

WATCHING. 



Eastern Fable. — There is an Eastern fable 
that a man waited 1,000 years before the gates of 
paradise, watching continuously for them to open, 
so that he might enter, and then fell asleep for 
one short hour. But during that hour the gates 
opened and were shut again, and he was left out. 



The Dark Day. — Near the close of the last century there was 
a day which has been known in history as " the Dark Day," when 
through New England and the Middle States the sun was obscured 
without apparent reason, and night came at noon. The Connecticut 
Legislature was in session, and some of the members, moved with 
fear, proposed an immediate adjournment. " It is the day of judg- 
ment," they said, "and it is not fitting that we should be here." 
But Colonel Davenport, one of the members, said : " I do not know 
whether this is the day of judgment or not. But if it be the day of 
judgment it cannot overtake us at a better place than at the post of 
duty. Let us light the candles and go on with the business of the 
house." And then he made his speech on a bill pertaining to fish 
nets in Long Island Sound. 

Library. — Whittier's poem on " Abraham Davenport." 



Sleeping at His Post. — *' A great commander was engaged in 
besieging a strongly fortified city. After awhile he concentrated his 
forces at a point where the fortifications were stronger than at any 
other, and at 2 p. m., under a bright sun and a clear sky, ordered an as- 
sault. When expostulated with by an under officer, the commander 
replied : ' At this point such a general is in command. At this hour 
of the day he is invariably accustomed to retire for a long sleep. 
When informed of our approach he will deny the fact, and send a mes- 
senger for information. Before the messenger returns we shall gain 
possession of the fortress.' The fact turned out exactly as predicted. 

' Yonder weak point,' said the commander, ' is held by General . 

There is no use in attempting to surprise him ; he is never for a mo- 
ment off his guard.' " — Dr. Mahan. 



392 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXIV 147-5 1 



47. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. 

48. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming ; 

49. And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the 
drunken ; 

50. The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him^ and 
in an hour that he is not aware of, 

51. And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites : 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Reference. — 47. " Ruler over all his goods." See on xxv. 29. 



51. Cut Asunder. . . his Portion with the Hypocrites.— 

" Think of the duplicity of such conduct. By office in the church ' ex- 

„ .^, alted unto heaven,' by practice 'brought down to hell'! 

Monsters with ^, , , . . , ^, 

Two Faces. That unnatural combination cannot last. 1 hese monsters 

with two faces and one black heart cannot be tolerated 

in the universe of God. They shall be cut asunder ; and then it will 

appear which of the two faces really belongs to the man." 

— J. Monroe Gibson, D.D. 

Reference. — "Hypocrites." See on xxiii. 13, etc. 



XXV: 1-9 



MATTHEW 



393 



CHAPTER XXV. 



1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten vir- 
gins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bride- 
groom. 

2. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 

3. They that were foohsh took their lamps, and took no oil 
with them : 

4. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 

5. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 

6. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bride- 
groom cometh ; go ye out to meet him. 

7. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. 

8. And the foolish said unto the wise. Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone 
out. 

9. But the wise answered, saying. Not so ; lest there be not enough for us and you : 
but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoon, 

April £,. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 



MOUNT OF 
OLIVES. 

PARABLE OF 
THE TEN 
VIRGINS. 



Pictures. — The Wise ajid Foolish Virgins, Pilpty, Heemskerk, 
Blake ; The Foolish Virgi?is, Bida. 



9. The Wise Answered, Saying, Not so. — " In the house of a 

well-known citizen of Boston there is an exquisite group in marble 

representing the wise and foolish virgins. The wise is kneeling, in 

the act of trimming her lamp; and the foolish, with a 

, ,, . , , . , . MarWe 

face full of the most pathetic entreaty, seems beggmg oroupofthe 

from her a share of the oil which she is pouring in to Wise and 

feed the flame ; but her sister, with a look of inexpressi- '^'ooJish 

Vireins 

ble sadness, and her hand uplifted as if to guard her 
treasure, is as if she were saying, 'Not so.' It is a touching render- 
ing of the parable ; and as I looked at it I was not surprised to be 
told that a famous New England essayist had said as he was gazing 
at it, ' She should have given her the oil!' Who has not often sympa- 
thized with that feeling as he read the parable } We are apt to think 
that the five sisters were just a little stingy. But said the owner of 
the group to the man of genius, ' If you and your neighbor have each 
signed a bill for a certain sum to fall due on a certain date, and you 
by dint of economy and perseverance have been able to lay by just 
enough to meet your own obligation, while your neighbor, wasting 
his hours on trifles, has made no provision for the day of settlement ; 



394 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV: IO-I2 



10. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came ; and they that were ready 
went in with him to the marriage : and the door was shut. 

11. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying. Lord, Lord, open to us, 

12. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. 

and if, on the morning when the bills fall due, he should come be- 
seeching you to give him some of your money to help him pay his 
debt, would you give it to him ? ' " — IV^/i. M. Taylor. 

In real life there is no opportunity for this selfishness, for however 
much we may desire it, it is iutpossible to impart the necessary prep- 
aration. 

" Behold, the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night. 
And blest is he whose loins are girt, whose lamp is burning 
bright." 

lo. And the Door was Shut. — " At a marriage, the procession 
of which I saw some years ago, the bridegroom came from a dis- 
tance and the bride lived at Serampore, to which place the bride- 
groom was to come by water. After waiting two or 
Marriage three hours, at length, near midnight, it was announced, 
in India. ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^^ words of Scripture, Behold the bride- 
groojn cometh ; go ye out to meet him, All the persons 
employed now lighted their lamps and ran with them in their hands 
to fill up their stations in the procession. Some of them had lost 
their lights and were unprepared ; but it was then too late to seek 
them, and the cavalcade moved forward to the house of the bride, 
at which place the company entered a large and splendidly illumi- 
nated area before the house, covered with an awning, where a great 
multitude of friends, dressed in their best apparel, were seated upon 
mats. The bridegroom was carried in the arms of a friend and 
placed upon a superb seat in the midst of the company, where he 
sat a short time, and then went into the house, the door of which 
was immediately shut and guarded by sepoys. I and others expostu- 
lated with the doorkeepers, but in vain. Never was I so struck 
with our Lord's beautiful parable as at this moment : a7id the door 
was shut. I was exceedingly anxious to be present while the mar- 
riage formulas were repeated, but was obliged to depart in disappoint- 
ment." — W. Ward in his View of the History, Literature, and My- 
thology of the Hindoos. 



XXV: 10-12 MATTHEW 395 

Library. — Tennyson's " Idylls of the King," 
"Late, Late, so Late." The story of the sibyl's 
offer to sell the nine books to King Tarquin of 
Rome. Southey's poem, "The Inchcape Rock." 
The tract, "The Sister's Dream of Heaven." 



A.I5. 30. 

Tuesday 

Afternoon, 

April 4. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 



MOUKT OF 
OLIVES. 

PARABLE OF 

THE TEN 
VIRGINS. 

^ ^ 



'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 
To the last syllable of recorded time ; 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death." — Shakespeare, Macbeth, 

" Procrastination is the thief of time : 
Year after year it steals till all are fled. 
And to the mercies of a moment leaves 
The vast concerns of an eternal time." — Young, 

THE LAND OF PRETTY SOON. 

" I know a land where the streets are paved 

With the things which we meant to achieve. 
It is walled with the money we meant to have saved, 

And the pleasures for which we grieve. 
The kind words unspoken, the promises broken, 

And many a coveted boon. 
Are stowed away there in that land somewhere, 

The land of Pretty Soon. 

"There are uncut jewels of possible fame 
Lying about in the dust, 
And many a noble and lofty aim 

Covered with mold and rust. 
And oh ! this place, while it seems so near. 

Is farther away than the moon ; 
Though our purpose is fair, we never get there. 
To the land of Pretty Soon." 

— Ella Wheeler Wzlcox, 

*' Never delay 
To do the duty which the hour brings, 
Whatever it be, in great or smaller things ; 

For who doth know 
What he can do the coming day } " 



896 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV: 10-12 

Too Late. — " A great surgeon stood before his class to perform 
an operation. With strong and gentle hand he did his part of the 
work successfully, and then turning to his pupils said : * Two years 
ago a simple operation might have cured this disease. Six years ago 
a wise way of life might have prevented it. Nature must now have 
her way. She will not consent to the repeal of her capital sentence.' 
The patient died next day." — Rev. Wm. A. Dickson, 

A Picture of Opportunities. — " We are continually coming up 
to doors which stand open for a little while, and then are shut. An 
artist has tried to teach this in a picture. 

" Father Time is there with inverted hourglass. A young man 

is lying at his ease on a luxurious couch, while beside him is a table 

spread with rich fruits and viands. Passing by him toward an open 

door are certain figures which represent Opportuniti es ; 

tunities. ^"^7 come to mvite the young man to nobleness, to 

manliness, to usefulness, to worth. 

" First is a rugged, sun-browned form, carrying a flail. This is 
Labor. He invites the youth to toil. He has already passed far by 
unheeded. 

" Next is a Philosopher, with open book, inviting the young man 
to thought and study, that he may master the secrets in the mystic 
volume. But this Opportunity, too, is disregarded. 

" Close behind the Philosopher comes a woman with bowed form, 
carrying a child. Her dress betokens widowhood and poverty. 
Her hand is stretched out appealingly. She craves Charity. Look- 
ing closely at the picture we see that the young man holds money 
in his hand. But he is clasping it tightly, and the poor woman's 
pleading is in vain. 

"Still another figure passes, endeavoring to lure and woo him 
from his idle ease. It is the form of a beautiful woman, who seeks 
by Love to awaken in him noble purposes worthy of his powers, and 
to inspire him for ambitious efforts. 

" One by one these Opportunities have passed with their calls and 
invitations, only to be unheeded. At last he is aroused to seize 
them, but it is too late ; they are vanishing from sight, and the door 
is closing. 

" This is a true picture of what is going on all the time in the 
world. Opportunities come to every young person, offering beauti- 
ful things, rich blessings, brilliant hopes. (Neglected door after door 
is shut.)"— 7 A'. Miller, in Making the Most of Life. 



XXV : 1 3- 1 7 MATTHEW 39 7 



A.I>. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoon, 

April 4. 

PASSION 

\YEEK. 

iI0O«-T OP 
OLIVES. 

PARABLE 

OF THE 

TALENTS. 



13. Watch therefore ; for ye know neither the day nor the 
hour wherein the Son of man cometh. 

14. •] For the kingdom of Jieaven is as a man travelling into 
a far country, a7w called his own servants, and delivered unto 
them his goods. 

15. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to 
another one ; to every man according to his several ability ; and 
straightway took his journey. 

16. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded 

-J »j« 

with the same, and made them other five talents. 

17. And Ukewise he that Jiad received two, he also gained 
other two. 

13. Watch Therefore.— " Argus is fabled to have had one hun- 
dred eyes, only two of which ever slept at once. Jupiter 
sent Mercur}- to slay him, but he could not reach him 
unawares. At last Mercur}'took the form of a shepherd, and played 
such charming music on his Pandean pipes and told him such inter- 
esting stories that the hundred eyes v,'ere all closed in sleep, and 
Mercury cut off his head with a single stroke." 

— See Ovid 's Metamorphoses. 

Referen'CE. See on xxiv. 42, 

The Parable of the Talents.— "An Eastern allegory runs 

thus : ' A merchant, going abroad for a time, gave respectively to 

two of his friends two sacks of wheat each, to take care ^^ ^ -r. 

, , , , , The Two Bass 

of agamst his return, lears passed; he came back and of Wheat. 

applied for them again. The first took him into his 

storehouse and showed them to him, but they were mildewed and 

worthless. The other led him into the open country and pointed 

out field after field of waving com, the produce of the two sacks 

given him. Said the merchant, ' You have been a faithful friend. 

Give me two sacks of that wheat ; the rest shall be thine.' " 



16. Traded with the Same.—" I remember to have read of 
Oliver Cromwell that, on one occasion he was visiting one of the 
great churches of our land, and discovered in the niches 
of one of its side chapels a number of silver statues. ^J^^^^.i ^^ 
'What are these ? ' demanded he, sternly, of the trem- Apostles, 
bling dean who was showing him round the church- 
' Please, your highness,' was the reply, ' they are the twelve apostles,' 



398 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV: 1 8-22 



18. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's 
money. 

19. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. 

20. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, 
saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents : behold, I have gained besides 
them five talents more. 

21. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant : thou hast 
been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou 
into the joy of thy lord. 

22. He also that had received two talents came and said. Lord, thou deliveredst 
unto me two talents : behold, I have gained two other talents besides them. 

' The twelve apostles, are they ? Well, take them away at once, and 
melt them down and coin them into money that, like their Master, 
they may go about doing good.' Such is the mission that God has 
given to each one of us. The world we live in is not a great play- 
ground, but a vast harvest field, where every man, each in his own 
particular sphere, must thrust in the sickle and reap." — R. Morton, 



Library. — Phillips Brooks' sermons, "The Man with One Talent." 
The largest part of the world's work is done by men of one or two 
talents. 

Power of the Medium. — "The arctic frost! The torrid heat! 
Behold, the true strength, the real life of the planet is not in these. 
It is in the temperate lands that the grape ripens and the wheat turns 
calmly yellow in the constant sun." 



" A little man with a great Gospel is mightier than a great man 
with a little Gospel." The great Gospel belongs to all of us, how- 
ever few our talents. 

" It is noble to do your best when you know it can be only second 
best. — Mrs. Charles. 

The Dangers of Mediocrity. — The middle man, the man who 
is neither very much nor very little — the man who has two talents, 
but only two .... is neither high enough to hear the calling of the 
stars, nor low enough to feel the tumult of the earthquake. What 
wonder, then, if he often falls asleep for sheer lack of sting and 
spur? 

"The commonplace man is the discursive man. He has neither 



XXV: 23 MATTHEW 399 



23. His Lord said unto iiim, Well done, good and faithful 
servant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make 
thee ruler over many things : enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 

the impetuosity of the torrent nor the direct gravi- 
tation of the single drop of water. He lies a loose 
and sluggish pool, and flows nowhither, and grows 
stagnant by and by." — Phillips Brooks. 



A.D. 30 

Tuesday 

Afternoon, 

April 4. 

PASSION 
WEEK. 

MOUNT OF 
OLITES. 

PARABLE 

OF THE 

TALENTS. 



Wrong Tests. — " Men forget two things in their discontent, — that 
it is not the work, but the spirit in which the work is done, that God 
values ; and that He, not they, will set the result to the work. 

" A poor invalid, confined helpless to her bed for years, on a lonely 
Sunday morning, when every one but she had gone to church, wrote 
two or three simple verses to ease her full heart. They have been 
sung since then in every language in the world, and have brought 
countless despairing and dying souls nearer to their God. 

" A cobbler, who could just spell out the meaning of his Bible, was 
used to gather a few barefoot children in his shop on Sunday morn- 
ing, to teach them all he knew. Robert Raikes happened to pass by 
the shop one morning, and struck by the idea, carried it out, and the 
result is all the Sunday schools of the world." 



USEFULNESS OF MEDIOCRITY. 
" Who knov/s 
What earth needs from earth's lowest creatures } No life 
Can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife. 
And all life not be purer and stronger thereby. 

" Honest love, honest sorrow. 
Honest work for the day, honest hope for the morrow, 
Are these worth nothing more than the hand they make weary, 
The heart they have saddened, the life they leave dreary ? " 

— Owen Meredith. 

Library. — Fiske's "Critical Period of American History," pp. 
224-228, furnishes an excellent example. 



23. Good and Faithful Servant.— " This parable turns on 
moral quality rather than on ability. Its key-note is not five talents, 



400 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV : 24-26 



24. Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee 
that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where 
thou hast not strewed : 

25. And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth : lo, there thou hast 
that is thine. 

26. His lord answered and "said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou 
knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed : 

nor two talents, nor one talent, but faithfulness to all three. It is 
faithfulness, and not amount, which links the talent to the joy of the 
Lord, the ' few things ' to the * many.' " — M. R. Vincent. 



The Reward.— verses 23-29 : " I will make thee ruler over many 
things ... To him that hath shall be given." 

The reward is both outward and inward, more glories, and bless- 
ings, and joys, and larger capacities for usefulness and enjoyment. 
Larger fields and wider spheres are given, greater opportunities for 
doing good, and a clearer perception of God, a fuller reception of all 
that makes heaven what it is. 

The reward is like imparting a new sense. We live in the uni- 
verse like one born blind. The blind man enjoys many things; he 
feels the warmth of the sunshine, but the exquisite glories of color in 
flower and forest, the splendor of the sky, the infinite 
LikeCreat- j-each of sight, are unknown till his eyes are opened. 

Worlds. Then, while in the same place and surrounded by the 
same things as before, he has entered a new world. 
There are many such spheres around us, one beyond the other, each 
one more glorious than the one within. Some are opened at conver- 
sion, others by various Christian experiences, and still "there is more 
to follow." And the only way to have our eyes opened to them is by 
faithfulness in the lesser sphere. 



Reference. — xxiv : 14, " Twice two more than four." Twice two 
talents were four talents plus ruling " over many things.'* 



The higher we climb a mountain, the wider the horizon. 



Use Increasing Power.— The careful use of any faculty in- 
creases its power, as the sailor's vision, the athlete's strength, the 



XXV : 24-26 MATTHEW 401 



artist's skill and taste, the musician's power. " The *^ 
only way to enlarge our sphere is to fill to overflow- 
ing the sphere we are in." 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoon, 

April 4. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 



MOUNT OP 
OLIVES. 

PAEABLE 

OF THE 

TALENTS. 



Opportunities that come to us are unnoticed 
or unattainable, unless we have been faithfully 
growing into a power to use them. What is an 
opportunity to sing, or to be sea-captain, or to open 
a large business, to one who has acquired no fitness 
for those things. All the falling apples in the world would not have 
suggested to Newton the law of gravitation, nor would all the steam- 
ing tea-kettles in England have awakened in Watt the idea of the 
steam-engine, if they had not been prepared by previous faithful 
study and work. 

Ne Plus Ultra, to Plus Ultra.— Spain inscribed on her coins 
the picture of the pillars of Hercules, which stood on either side of 
the straits of Gibraltar, the extreme boundary of her empire, with 
only an unexplored ocean beyond ; and on the scroll over them was 
written ne plus ultra, nothing beyond. But afterwards, when 
Columbus had discovered America, Spain struck out the negative, 
and left the inscription, plus ultra, more beyond. On every soul, 
on every life is this inscription, but what shall be beyond, depends 
on our faithfulness here. 

" Always more to follow ; 
Oh ! his matchless boundless love. 

Still there's more to follow." 



" I held it truth, with him who sings 
To one clear harp in divers tones. 
That men may rise on stepping-stones 
Of their dead selves to higher things." — Longfellow. 
But it is far better to rise on stepping-stones of their living selves 
to higher things. If 

" Of our vices we can frame 
A ladder, if we will but tread 
Beneath our feet each deed of shame," 
how much more can we frame a ladder of all deeds faithfully done ! 



402 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV : 2/, 28 

27. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at 
my coming I should have received mine own with usury. 

28. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten 
talents. 

Possibilities. — " The most persistent and varied activity and the 
largest achievements of the greatest men are but small in themselves 
considered, but they are points where the vast economy of the king- 
dom of God — that something which is vaguely indicated by 'many 
things/ ' the joy of the Lord ' — emerges into the region of our 
human life and touches it. That which is out of sight is more and 
greater than that which pushes out into our view. That point of 
rock which rises out of the hillside is, to the geologist, not merely a 
distinct stone — it tells him the dip and quality of the 
The Rock great strata underground which buttress the hills. Obe- 
that shows dience, responsibility, duty, work, love, trust — all that 
andlfit^ra^- ^n^kes up Christian life here — are sides and manifesta- 
ture. tions of the unseen, spiritual universe. Godliness has 
promise, not only of the life that now is, but of that 
which is to come — has the promise which one part of a thing gives 
of the other part. Godliness is a part of the life to come. Godli- 
ness is God revealing Himself in human character. Follow back 
Godliness and you come to God. The boy who is learning his alpha- 
bet is handling the same elements which enter into the plays of 
Shakespeare or the dialogues of Plato. He has begun upon litera- 
ture when he has learned ABC. It is a little thing in itself for 
him to learn twenty-six letters, but it is a very great thing when you 
consider the alphabet as the medium of the world's thought. Even 
so the largest endowment and result are but ' a few things,' but they 
acquire a tremendous and eternal importance as integral parts of the 
great moral economy of God."— Marvz'n R. Vincent, D.D. 

27. Usury. — r<5«cj. A very graphic word, meaning first childbirth, 
and then offspring. Hence of interest, which is the produce or off- 
spring of capital. 

28. The Man with One Talent.—" Take therefore the talent 
from him." 

The fish in Mammoth Cave, Ky., are entirely blind, from their 
long existence as a race in perfect darkness ; although the fish of the 
same species in the streams outside in the light have good eyes. 



XXV : 29, 30 MATTHEW 403 



29. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall 
have abundance : but from him that bath not shall be taken 
away even that which he hath . 

30. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness : 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoon, 

April 4. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

MOUNT or 

OLIVES. 

PARABLE 

OF THE 

TALENTS. 



Dr. Bushnell says, " If one of the arms be kept 
in free use, from childhood onward, while the other 
is drawn up over the head, and made rigid there, ^ 
by long and violent detention, — a feat of religious 
austerity which the idolaters of the East often practise, — the free 
arm and shoulder will grow to full size, and the other will gradually 
shrink and perish." 

"A man who might carve statues and paint pictures, spending his 
life in making mock flowers out of wax and paper, is wise compared 
with the man who might have God for company, and yet shuts God 
out and lives an empty life," — See Phillips Brooks' Sermon on the 
Man with One Talent. 

Reference. Dickens' story of the Skitzlanders, xxi. 19. 

"A woman of rank once said to Turner, the painter, 

that she could not see in nature such effects as he de- J' 

Sense, 
picted upon his canvas. The artist only replied : * Ah, 

madame, do not you wish you could } ' " — Fro/. A. Strong, LL.D, 
Library. — Rogers' "Greyson Letters," p. 41. 



A Lesson from Chemistry. — "Air, they find, is composed of 
about one-fifth active, energetic oxygen, four-fifths comparatively 
inert nitrogen, and a very small proportion of the new gas, argon, 
lately discovered, and so named because it will not work, nor com- 
bine with anything else. It is simply the one inefficient, slothful 
element in the family of some seventy elements ; whose very exist- 
ence as an element has all these years been unknown because it 
would not do anything. 

" Is it not possible that there may be such an element as argon in 
the Christian family, known perhaps to God, but undiscoverable as 
a Christian force to any one else ? There are in every 
church certain very active members, like the oxygen of 
the air (the men of two and five and ten talents of the parable). 



404 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV 131 

31 . If When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with 
him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory : 

Then there is another class who can, by suitable appeals, by being 
put under favorable conditions of revival warmth, be persuaded to 
do their active part in religious work. They are more numerous 
than the first class (?) as, indeed, the comparatively inert nitrogen is 
four times as abundant in the air as is the active oxygen. Lil<:e 
nitrogen, they simply dilute the church atmosphere. 

" But are there not others, possible Christians, in the atmosphere 
of the Christian Church, of whom we cannot say even as much as 
this, to whom the only word that can be properly applied is argon, 
inactive, ineffective, slothful. The trouble with them is that they 
will not combine. Work cannot be done alone." 

— Condensed from New York Independent, 

Reference. See xii. 36 ; another application of "Argon." 



Sins of Omission. — This man reminds us of those who were con- 
demned in the parable of the Judgment (veses 41-46), not for positive 
crimes, but for refusing to do the good they might have done. We 
are responsible not only for our sins, but for all the good that might 
have flowed from our lives, for the opportunities of usefulness, the 
possibilities of growth in character. They hide their talents in a 
napkin, not only, who shut themselves up in hermits' huts or convent 
walls, but also those who shut themselves from their true work in the 
world, within the walls of timidity, or selfishness, or the overpressure 
of worldly cares. Had the boy of Tarsus always remained a boy and 
never grown into Paul at Rome; or the babe in the bulrushes re- 
fused to grow into Moses ; or the uncouth mountaineer to become 
Elijah on Carmel, they would then have been illustrations of the 
failure and loss of those who hide their talent in a napkin. Nothing 
is so improvable as the human soul. It is well to note also that the 
punishment for sins of omission is like the sin. It omits the best 
things from this life and the next. 



Pictures. — The Last Judgment, Michael Angelo {Sistine ChapeT)^ 
Orcagna {Campo Santa Pisa), Rubens {Old Pinakothek, Munich), E. Burne 
Jones, Giotto {Arena Chapel), Luca Signorelli {Cathedral at Orvieto). 



XXV : 32, 33 Matthew 405 

4- 



32. And before him shall be gathered all nations : and he 
shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth 
his sheep from the goats : 

33. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the 
goats on the left. 

Library. — Farrar's "Life of Christ in Art"; 
Dante's " Inferno." 



A.U. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoon, 

Ap7-il 4. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

MOUNT OF 
OLIVES. 

THE 

JUDGMENT. 

J^ ^ 



32. As A Shepherd Divideth his Sheep from the Goats. — 
" The morning after reaching Palestine, when setting out from Ram- 
leh, across the plain of Sharon, we saw a shepherd leading forth a 
flock of white sheep and black goats, all mingled as they 
followed him. Presently he turned aside into a little ^^^^P^"* 
green valley, and stood facing the flock. When a sheep 
came up he tapped it with his long staff on the right side of the 
head, and it quickly moved off to his right ; a goat he tapped on the 
other side, and it went to his left. Thus the Saviour's image pre- 
sented itself exactly before our eyes." — Prof. J. A. Broadus. 



" The flocks of sheep and goats fed together in the same field. 
The goats were of a finer breed than I had before seen, and the 
sheep had long, coarse, hairy wool ; so that, in casting your eye 
over the field, you could hardly say at the first glance, which were 
goats, and which were sheep." — Clarke's Glimpses of the Old World. 



Sheep and Goats. — " Though the two kinds of animals are often 
mixed together when out in the fields grazing, yet to the shepherd's 
eye they are never confounded ; and when, for any purpose whatso- 
ever, they require to be separated, the separation is effected unerr- 
ingly. The two species of animals, though in some respects some- 
what alike, are yet very different. When traveling between Joppa 
and Jerusalem, I saw, at a certain spot, a great intermingled flock of 
sheep and goats. The goats were all perfectly black, the sheep were 
all beautifully white ; and thus, even to my eye, and while I was 
looking from a distance, the distinction between the tv/o kinds was 
strikingly obvious. If a separation of the two had been required, 
there would not have been the least danger of a mistake." 

— M orison. 



406 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV : 32, 33 

Neither Sheep nor Goats.—" ' I can understand what is to 
become of the sheep, and I can understand what is to become of 
the goats; but how are the alpacas to be dealt with?' These 
words, quoted by a writer in The Nineteenth Century, touch one of 
the difficulties of the last judgment that has probably occurred at 
some time or other to most of us. The alpaca is a half-domesticated 
animal that is pastured in large flocks on the upper ranges of the 
Andes in Chili and Peru. It has long, lustrous hair, and 
in many respects is not unlike the sheep. An untrav- 
eled Eastern shepherd would probably call it a sheep. At the same 
time it possesses some of the characteristics of the goat. After all, 
however, it is neither sheep nor goat, but a species of small camel. 
By the ' alpaca ' I suppose the writer meant the man who has admir- 
able and attractive social qualities, but who seems to be almost des- 
titute of religious interest and sympathy and leaning. We do meet 
with that type of man at times. Now the question arises, Is there a 
nondescript type in character, corresponding to the alpaca in animal 
life — a type for which the classification set up in the text provides 
no appropriate place } " — Homilectic Cojn. 

There were a great many animals in Palestine, but Christ's illus- 
tration was solely from the ordinary flocks of the shep- 
n y wo i^gj-fjs p^\ ^hg animals were either sheep or they were 
not sheep. There were but two classes ; and while we 
cannot always distinguish the two, the Eye that seeth the heart 
can make no mistake. 

The Judgment.— Dr. Bonar had a dream that the angels took 
his zeal and weighed it, and told him that it was excellent, for it 
weighed plump 100, — all that could be asked. He was 
Dr. Bonar's gj-gatly gratified at the result. Next they wished to an- 
alyze it. They put it in a crucible and tested it in va- 
rious ways with this result : 14 parts were selfishness, 15 parts secta- 
rianism, 22 parts ambition, 23 parts love to man, and 26 parts love to 
God. He awoke humbled, and determined on a new consecration. 



" ' Measuring Day ' is an excellent story by Hester Wolcott in the 
New York Observer, quoted in " Mission Studies " for November, 1889. 
A young girl mingled in her dreams a sermon on ' growing unto the 
stature of a perfect man ' with the story of King Frederick of Prussia, 
each one of whose famous guardsmen must come up to a certain 



XXV : 34-3^ MATTHEW 407 



34. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, 
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
for you from the foundation of the world. 

35. For I was a hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took 
me in : 

36. Naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye visited 
me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoon, 

April i^. 

PASSION 
WEEK. 

MOUNT OF 
OLIVES. 

THE 
JUDGMENT. 



Stature. In her dream she came to measurmg day, when every per- 
son's growth in grace must be measured. An angel stood with a 
tall golden rod fastened in the ground by his side. Over it on a 
golden scroll were the words : ' the measure of the stature of 
THE PERFECT MAN.' The angel held in his hand a large book into 
which he wrote the measurements, as the people came up on the 
calling of their names. The instant each one touched the golden 
measure a most wonderful thing happened. No one could escape 
the terrible accuracy of that strange rod. Each one shrank or 
increased to his true dimensions — his spiritual dimensions, as I soon 
learned — for it was an index of the soul's growth which was shown 
in this mysterious and miraculous way, so that even we could see 
with our eyes what otherwise the angel alone could have perceived." 



34. Prepared for You from the Foundation of the 
World. — There is wonderful comfort and inspiration in the assur- 
ance that God regards us as worthy of his thought and planning 
from the very beginning : that it was not demons nor chance, but 
the wise and loving God who planned our lives and prepared a place 
for us in his work, in his kingdom, and in his home. 



** Thy feet, at last, shall stand on jasper floors ; 
Thy heart, at last, shall seem a thousand hearts — 
Each single heart with myriad raptures filled — 
While thou shalt sit with princes and with kings, 
Rich in the jewel of a ransomed soul." 



35. I WAS A hungered AND Ye GAVE ME MEAT. — The aCtS of 

kindness here mentioned are but specimens and illustrations of the 
good deeds of God's children. The good deeds are not substitutes 



408 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV : 37-39 

37. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw thee a hungered, 
and fed thee ? or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? 

38. When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee 9 

39. Or when we saw thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee ? 

for faith and prayer and love and honesty, but they are 
The Spirit ^^ proofs of a right heart, from which all virtues grow, 
the Fruit. '^^^ fruits of the Spirit are the proofs of the Spirit. 
Flowers and fruits are not substitutes for seeds and cul- 
ture and the life of the tree. All these are the means by which 
flowers and fruits may be gained. The church is not afraid of good 
works. They are what a church is for. But it is opposed to imita- 
tions which are substitutes for love of God and man, like the paper 
flowers fastened on trees described under chapter xxiii. 13, "Hypo- 
crites." 



37. When saw we Thee a hungered and Fed Thee .^— The 
unconsciousness of the righteous shows that their virtues were sin- 
cere and true. Whosoever does good ^^^As for the sake of \}i\^ re- 
ward deserves no reward, and will obtain none, for the soul of good- 
ness is left out of such deeds. 

Reference. See " The Victoria Cross," chapter x. 



Unconscious Goodness is the highest form of goodness. The 

beginner in music counts his measures and studies on what note he 

shall place each finger, but the perfect musician strikes the right 

notes and expresses the right emotions almost as natu- 

Hudson on rally as he breathes or as the birds warble their morning 

Unconscious- ^^ 
nessofthe ° , , j j , 

Good. " We are apt to estimate the merit of our good deeds 

according to the struggle we make in doing them ; whereas 
the greater our virtues the less we shall have to struggle in order to 
do them, and it is purely the weakness and imperfection of our virtue 
that makes it so hard to do well. Accordingly,we find that he who does 
no duty without being goaded up to it, is conscious of much more vir- 
tue than he has ; while he who does every duty as a thing of course 
and a matter of delight is, unconscious of his virtue, simply because he 
has so much of it'' 

— Hudson's Lectures on Shakespeare, Vol. II., p. 103. 



XXV : 40, 41 MATTHEW 409 



40. And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily 
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 

41. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart 
from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil 
and his angels : 



A.I>. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoon, 

April 4. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

MOtTNT OF 

OLIVES. 

THE 

JUDGMENT. 

Harvard Memorial Hall. — In the Memoria 
Hall at Harvard University there is a wonderful 
array of beautiful sentences frescoed on the walls in various colors, 
but they are all in Latin. And it is said that some of the workmen 
did not know the meaning of the sentences they painted, but could 
only put the letters and the colors on the walls as they were told, 
without understanding the wondrous meaning wrapped up in them. 
So we are often writing our lives in an unknown tongue ; we can only 
do as we are bidden ; but in due time there will be read out in some 
heavenly language a biography we never dreamed was ours, full of 
glory and blessing. 

40. Inasmuch as Ye have Done it Unto one of the Least 
OF These, etc. 
Reference, x. 42. 

" No service in itself is small. 

None great, though earth it fill ; 
But that is small that seeks its own, 
And great that seeks God's will." 



Leigh Hunt's Poem, " Abou Ben Adhem," who, when the angel 
appeared to him with his book, in which were written "the names of 
those who love the Lord," asked that his own name might be writ- 
ten as "one who loves his fellow-men." The angel appeared 
again, — 

" And showed the names whom love of God had blessed. 
And lo ! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest." 



Library. — Lowell's " Vision of Sir Launfal." 
" The Holy Supper is kept, indeed. 
In whatso we share with another's need, — 



410 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV : 40, 4I 

Not what we give, but what we share, — 
For the gift without the giver is bare. 
Who gives himself with his alms feeds three — 
Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me." 



We never know how small a thing may become a benediction to a 
human life. 

" Only a thought, but the work it wrought 
Could never by pen or tongue be taught ; 
For it ran through a life like a thread of gold. 
And the life bore fruit a hundredfold." 



This direct and personal service of Jesus tends to transfigure all 
our daily lives with the radiance of heaven. 

" Oh, may I join the choir invisible 
Of those immortal dead who live again 
In minds made better by their presence ! " 

" So shall I join the choir invisible, 
Whose music is the gladness of the world." 

— George Eliot, 
Reference.— X. 42. The poem, " Wrought into Gold." 

The Reward. 

" Thy love shall chant its own beatitudes 
After its own life working. A child's kiss 
Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad ; 
A poor man served by thee shall make thee rich ; 
A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong; 
Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense 
Of service which thou renderest." 



Library. — The story of the Apostle Thomas and the palace he 
built for King Gondoforus ; Mrs. Jamieson's " Sacred and Legendary 
Art " ; " Legend of Strasburg Cathedral," in " The Uplands of God." 



Observe that the words, "of my Father," do not follow ''ye 
cursed," as they do the blessed of verse 34. The blessing comes from 
God, the curte is brought by the sinner on himself. Every sinner 
is a moral suicide. 



XXV : 42-45 MATTHEW 411 



42. For I was a hungered, and ye gave me no meat : I was 
thirsty, and ye gave me no drink : 

43. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in : naked, and ye 
clothed me not : sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 

44. Then shall they also answer him, saying. Lord, when saw 
we thee a hungered, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, 
or in prison, and did not minister unto thee ? 

45. Then shall he answer them, saying. Verily I say unto 
you. Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye 
did it not to me. 



42. I WAS A HUNGERED, AND Ye GAVE ME NO MEAT. 



A.©. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afteruooii} 

April 4. 
PASSION 

week. 

MOUNT OF 
OLIVES. 
THE 

JUDGMENT. 



Library. — Hood's "The Lady's Dream," where she saw the 
funeral procession of one who had died through her neglect; and 
the sick, the starving, whom she might have helped, — their sad 
eyes burned her very soul. 

So Hood aroused the British world in his " Song of the Shirt " 
with the pathetic couplet : 

'• And yet it was never in my soul 
To play so ill a part ; 
But evil is wrought by want of thought, 
As well as by want of heart." 



Doing No Harm.— "The story has been told of a soldier who 
was missed amid the bustle of a battle, and no one knew what 
had become of him ; but they knew that he was not in the ranks. 
As soon as opportunity offered, the officer went in search of him, 
and to his surprise found that the man, during the battle, had been 
amusing himself in a flower-garden ! When it was demanded what 
he did there, he excused himself by saying, ' Sir, I am doing no 
harm.' But he was tried, convicted and shot. What a sad but true 
picture this is of many who waste their time, and neglect their duty, 
and could give their God, if demanded, no better answer than, 
' Lord, I am doing no harm ! ' " — Gospel Trumpet. 



Neglect. — The greatest losses are sustained by neglect. A 
disease neglected, lifeboat neglected, care neglected. One neglects 
to learn to sing, and then it is not the chorister's fault if he fails to 
have part in the anthem. 



412 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV : 46 



46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment : but the righteous into 
life eternal. 



46. — These Shall go Away, etc. 



Two Pictures. — One of the saddest things in the future for those 
who reject God will be to see two pictures ever before them : one, 
the picture of what God meant them to be, — the beautiful, useful, 
happy life that was possible for them, drawn out in all its various 
features of exquisite loveliness and glory ; the other, the picture of 
what they are. To see those pictures side by side, and know that 
we might have been so happy and so good, and that it is our fault 
alone that we are not, — this alone would make a hell. 



Reference. — vi. 3. " Experience of a wicked man.' 



Hood's Poem, " The Dream of Eugene Aram," represents this 
man, a school teacher, as having murdered a man. After that he 
could not look in the faces of the innocent children. He buried 
the body, but had to take it up ; he plunged it in a stream, but the 
stream ran dry ; he covered it with leaves, but the wind blew them 
away. 

" I knew my secret then was one 
The earth refused to keep, 
Or land or sea, though he should be 
Ten thousand fathoms deep. 

And lo ! the universal air 

Seemed lit with ghastly flame ; 
Ten thousand thousand dreadful eyes 

Were looking down in blame." 

A true picture, not only of m-urder, but of all sin in the end. 



Library. — Matthew Arnold's poems, " St. Brendan," see xxvi, 49. 

Victor Hugo's "La Conscience."— Every one knows Victor 
Hugo's beautiful poem, " La Conscience,'' the story of Cain fleeing 
away before the eye of God. He walks thirty days and thirty nights, 



XXV: 46 MATTHEW 413 

•J" 



until he reaches the shores of the ocean. " Let us 
stop here," says he. But as he sits down his face 
turns pale ; he has seen " in the mournful skies the 
Eye at the same place." His sons, full of awe, try 
to erect barriers between him and the eye : a tent, 
then a wall of iron, then a tower and a city ; but all 
is vain. " I see the Eye still," cries the unhappy 
man. At last they dig a tomb ; the father is put 
into it. But 

•'Though overhead they closed the awful vault, 
The Eye was in the tomb, and looked on Cain." 

— Reuben Saillens. 



A.D. 30 

Tuesday 
Afternoon, 

April 4. 

PASSION 

WEEK. 

MOUNT OP 
OLIVES. 

THE 
JUDGMENT. 



Library. — Illustrations can be drawn from ^schylus' " Tragedy 
of Orestes," from the " Furies " ; and from Shakespeare's " Macbeth " 
and " Richard HL" 



Never by lapse of time, 

The soul defaced by crime 

Into its former self returns again ; 

For every pjuilty deed 

Holds in itself the seed 

Of retribution and undying pain." 

— Longfellow' s Masque of Pandora. 



THE WEAVER. 

A weaver sat by the side of his loom 

A-fiinging the shuttle fast, 
And a thread that would last till the hour of doom 

Was added at every cast. 

His warp had been by the angels spun. 

And his weft was bright and new, 
Like threads which the morning upraids from the sun, 

All jeweled over with dew. 

And fresh-lipped, bright-eyed, beautiful flowers 

In the rich soft web were bedded ; 
And blithe to the weaver sped onward the hours, 

Not yet were Time's feet leaded. 



414 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV : 46 

But something there came slow stealing by, 

And a shade on the fabric fell ; 
And I saw that the shuttle less blithely did fly ; 

For thought has a wearisome spell. 

And anon I marked there a tear-drop's stain 

Where the flowers had fallen away, 
But still the weaver kept weaving on, 

Tho' the fabric all was gray. 

And things all strange were woven in, 

Sighs, down-crushed hopes and fears. 
And the web was- broken, and poor, and thin. 

And it dripped with living tears. 

And the weaver fain would have flung it aside, 

But he knew it would be a sin ; 
So in light and in gloom the shuttle he plied 

A-weaving those life-cords in. 

And as he wove, and weeping still wove, 

A tempter stole him nigh ; 
And with glowing words he to win him strove, 

But the weaver turned his eye — 

He upward turned his eye to heaven. 

And still wove on — on — on ! 
Till the last, last cord from his heart was riven. 

And the tissue strange was done. 

Then he threw it about his shoulders bowed. 

And about his grizzled head. 
And gathering close the folds of his shroud. 

Laid him down among the dead. 

And after I saw in a robe of light 

That weaver in the sky ; 
The angels' wings were not more bright 

And the stars grew pale it nigh. 

And I saw mid the folds all the iris-hued flowers 

That beneath his touch had sprung, 
More beautiful far than these stray ones of ours. 

Which the angels have to us flung. 



XXV : 46 



MATTHEW 



415 



And wherever a tear had fallen down, 
Gleamed out a diamond rare, 

And jewels befitting a monarch's crown 
Were the foot prints left by care. 



^ 



A.D. 30. 

Tuesday 
Afternoon, 

April t^. 

PASSION 
WEEK. 

MOUNT OF 

A Vision of the Future.— A German writer ohves. 

represents a good man as coming, after his death, judgment. 
to the gates of heaven, and welcomed to its glories. 
An angel was commissioned to be his conductor 
and teacher. First he took him to a point where he could see 
the most fearful representation of sin when it had brought forth 
death. It was a fearful place peopled with everything hateful, loath- 
some, and wretched. His guide bade him look still farther down 
the dismal vault, and farther scill, where were objects more an- 
guished, and loathsome, and haggard with wasting woe. He bade 
him concentrate his vision on an object more hideous aud disgust- 
ing than he ever could have imagined. " That," said his conductor, 
" in the ages of eternity would have been you, had you not repented 
and believed. Behold the woe and degradation from which you 
have been saved by the compassion of your Saviour ! " His guide 
then took him to a point from which could be seen the glories of 
the redeemed. He saw the highest ranks of angels, he heard their 
songs and hallelujahs, and was ravished. He was directed to look 
far beyond all these, and there he beheld an object more beautiful 
than the highest saint who had been longest in heaven, more blissful 
than seraph or archangel. He heard music ineffably more sweet 
than any which flowed from the harps of the angels nearest the 
throne. The excess of glory overpowered him. Then said his con- 
ductor, '' That beautiful and enraptured being is yourself many 
ages hence. Behold the glory and the bliss to which you are ex- 
alted through the salvation of the Redeemer." 



" Think you the notes of holy song 
On Milton's tuneful ear have died.^ 
Think you that Raphael's angel throng 
Has vanished from his side ? 

" Oh, no ! we live our lives again. 

All warmly touched or coldly done. 
The pictures of the past remain, 
Man's works shall follow on. 



416 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXV : 46 

' Still shall the soul around it call 

The shadows that it gathered here ; 
And painted on the eternal wall, 
The past shall reappear. 

" We shape ourselves the joy or fear 
Of which the coming life is made, 
And fill our future atmosphere 
With sunshine or with shade. 

" The tissue of the life to be 

We weave in colors all our own, 
And in the field of destiny 
We reap what we have sown." 



Library. — Joseph Cook's " Monday Lectures, Transcendentalism," 
"The final permanence of moral character." Plutarch's "Delay 
of Divine Justice," Dr. Peabody's edition. "Col. Hungerford's 
Daughter, pp. 1 31-132. The poem, " The Doomed Man." Lowell's 
Poems, " The Weigher." 



XXVI : 1-8 



MATTHEW 



417 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



1. And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these 
sayings, he said unto his disciples, 

2. Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover, 
and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. 

3. Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, 
and the elders of the people, unto the palace of the high priest, 
who was called Caiaphas, 

4. And consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty, and 

5. But they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar 
among the people. 

6. Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 

7. There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious oint- 
ment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. 

8. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is 
this waste ? 



A.I>. 30. 

PASSION 
WEEK. 

JERUSALEM. 
THE 

PLOTTING, 

vs. 1-5, Tues.^ 
April 4. 



SIMON'S 

SUPPER, 

vs. 6-13, "was on 

Sat., Aprils.. 



6, 7. Mary at the Feast. 

" Her eyes are homes of silent prayer, 
Nor Other thought her mind admits 
But, he was dead, and there he sits, 
And he that brought him back is there." — Tennyson. 

8. To What Purpose is this Waste ? — " The German poet is 
often cited for his remark that the Cow of Isis is to some the divine 
symbol of knowledge, to others but the milch cow, only regarded 
for the pounds of butter she will yield." — Jacox. 



SwiNE AT THE Lion's Feast. — "When Dr. Jonas Justus told Dr. 
Martin Luther of a certain potent landholder who said to Duke John 
Frederic, when commending to him the Gospel of Christ, * Sir, the 
Gospel pays no interest,' — ' Have you no grains } ' was Luther's inter- 
rogative comment, citing the swine at the lion's feast, when invited 
to feast on recondite dainties. Even so, said Dr. Martin, there are 
inveterate worldlings who, when invited to the spiritual feast of fat 
things well refined, 'turn up their snouts, and ask for guilders. 
Offer a cow nutmeg, and she will reject it for old hay.' " — Jacox, 



418 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVI:9-I3 

9. For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor, 

10. When Jesus understood it^ he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman ? 
for she hath wrought a good work upon me. 

11. For ye have the poor always with you ; but me ye have not always. 

12. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my 
burial. 

13. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole 
world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial 
of her. 

Valuing the Sun.—" They who would think the sun a useful 
creature if he would come down from the sky and light their fires, 
will gravely reprehend such wasteful extravagance " as bringing 
more than enough, as did the Israelites for the Tabernacle, and as 
the sun is doing all the time. So Carlyle, in his estimate of the 
"uses of Dante," declines to say much about "uses." "We will not 
estimate the sun by the quantity of gaslight it saves us." — Jacox. 



Library. — Jacox's "Secular Annotations," Vol. I., pp. 309-313, 
adds other illustrations to those above quoted from that essay. 



7-13. — " This woman's giving up her alabaster box of precious nard 
reminds us of the burning of the magical books at Ephesus when 
the sorcerers turned away from their arts and came to Christ for 
pardon." — C. S. Robinson. 

" No shattered box of ointment 
We ever need regret, 
For out of disappointment 
Flow sweetest odors yet. 

*' The discord that involveth 

Some startling change of key, 
The Master's hand resolveth 
In richest harmony." 



Alabaster Boxes of Human Sympathy.— "Do not keep the 
alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your 
friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness. Speak approving, 
cheering words while their ears can hear them and while their hearts 



XXVI: 14-21 MATTHEW 419 



^ ^ 

A.D, 30. 

THE 
PLOTTING, 
Tuesday, 

April 4. 



THE 
PASSOVER, 
Tliursday 
Evening, 

April 6. 
PASSION WEEK. 

JERUSALEM. 



14. T[ Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went 
unto the chief priests, 

15. And said unto them. What will ye give me, and I will 
deliver him unto you ? And they covenanted with him for 
thirty pieces of silver, 

16. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. 

17. ^ Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread 
the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him. Where wilt thou 
that we prepare for thee to eat the passover ? 

18. And he said. Go into the city to such a man, and say 
unto him, The Master saith. My time is at hand ; I will keep **" *s* 
the passover at thy house with my disciples, 

19. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them ; and they made ready the 
passover, 

20. Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve. 

21. And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall be- 
tray me. 

can be thrilled and made happier by them ; the kind things you 
mean to say when they are gone, say before they go. The flowers 
you mean to send for their coffins, send to brighten and sweeten 
their homes before they leave them. If my friends have alabaster 
boxes laid away, full of fragrant perfumes of sympathy and affection, 
which they intend to break over my dead body, I would rather they 
would bring them out in my weary and troubled hours and open 
them, that I may be refreshed and cheered by them while I need 
them. I would rather have a plain coffin, without a flower, a funeral 
without an eulogy, than a life without the sweetness of love and sym- 
pathy. Let us learn to anoint our friends beforehand for their 
burial. Post-mortem kindness does not cheer the burdened spirit. 
Flowers on the coffin cast no fragrance backward overthe weary way," 
— Anon. On a slip circulated by Lewis Merriam of Greenfield, Mass. 

Reference. — 14. "Judas." See on verses 47-49, and xxvii. 3. 



21. One of You shall Betray Me. 

Library. — Shakespeare's account of Brutus killing Caesar, his 
most intimate friend. 

" For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel ! 
This was the most unkindest cut of all ; 
For when the noble Caesar saw him stab. 
Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms. 
Quite vanquished him ; then burst his mighty heart," 



4:20 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVI : 22-25 



22. And they were exceeding sonowful, and began every one of them to say unto 
him, Lord, is it I ? 

23. And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the 
same shall betray me. 

24. The Son of man goeth as it is written of him : but woe unto that man by whom 
the Son of man is betrayed I it had been good for that man if he had not been bom. 

25. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said. Master, is it I ? He said 
unto him, Thou hast said. 

22. Lord, Is it I ? — "AH their want of nobility, all their failure in 
love, all the depth of their selfishness, all the weakness of their 
faith,— 

' Every evil thought they ever thought, 
Every evil word they ever said, 
Every evil thing they ever did/ 

all crowded upon their memories, and made their consciences afraid." 

______ — Farrar, 

23. He that Dippeth his Hand With Me in the Dish.— 
"The depth of infamy to which he sank who, having eaten bread or 
food of any kind with a man, should subsequently injure him, or be- 
tray him into the hands of his enemies, it is not easy for us West- 
erners to fathom, The sacred character of the ancient unwritten 
law which identifies the interests of those who have partaken to- 
gether of food, and pledges them to mutual protection, even to the 
cost of life, has never been denied, and its authority is unimpaired. 
Judas was bound by the most solemn obligations to defend his 
Master, and the revulsion of feeling when he realized the pit of dis- 
grace into which he had fallen goes far to explain his 

*o/sa"tt" passionate suicide. The following may be taken as illus- 
trating the loyalty of the Orient to the old kindly cus- 
tom. A traveler is explaining to his host the difference between 
Western and Eastern customs in eating. ' But how,' asks the host. 
* would you do an ikram to a guest ? ' (an act of honor and regard) ? 
' Now, we do this,' he said, as he detached a piece of roast mutton 
with his fingers and passed it to me, which I took with my fingers 
from his and ate. 'Now, do you know what I have done?' 'Per- 
fectly well ; you have given me a delicious piece of roast meat, and I 
have eaten it.' * You have gone very far from it. By that act I have 
pledged you every arop of my blood that, while you are in my terri- 
tory, no evil shall come to you. For that space we are brothers.' " 
— Rev. William Ewing, in the Sunday- School Times for 1895. 



XXVI: 26-28 MATTHEW 421 



26. T[ And as they were eating-, Jesus took bread, and blessed 
ity and brake z/, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, 
eat ; this is my body. 

27. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to 
them, saying, Drink ye all of it ; 

28. For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed 
for many for the remission of sins. 



A.I>. 30. 
Thursday 
Evening, 

April 6. 

THE 
PASSOVEE. 

PASSION WEEK. 

JERUSALEM. 



26. And as They were Eating. — Dr. Hamlin *^ ^ 

says that one of the greatest difficulties in Christian- 
izing the East is that families do not eat together. It is hard for us 
to realize how much benefit it is to our families to be 
gathered together two or three times a day around the m^^V^^ 
table. Nothing but the necessity of eating could accom- 
plish this. Eating together promotes friendship, sociability, gener- 
osity, and the intellectual life. 



The Palace Beautiful, of Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Progress," is 
the most perfect picture of the church and its ordinances, in all litera- 
ture. The lions in the way before his coming ; the porter, Watchful, 
welcoming the pilgrim at the door; the examination by the gentle 
maidens, Piety, Prudence, and Charity, with their discourse at the 
supper; the sleeping in the Chamber of Peace; the study of the 
records of the place ; the vision of the Delectable Mountains; and 
the putting on of the armor for future warfare, make altogether a fit- 
ting picture of the " house built by the Lord of the hill for the relief 
and security of pilgrims." 

He Took Bread. — The simplest and most common things of 
daily life are employed to teach us of Christ, so that all may under- 
stand, so that everything shall remind us of him, and the whole daily 
life may be sanctified and transfigured. 

Mr. Ruskin says that in nature the most common shapes and forms 
are the most beautiful, and that you can almost tell what 
lines or curves are the most beautiful, by finding out ^^^^^^s^of 
those which God has created in the greatest abundance. xype. 
So Christ has taken for the ordinances of his kingdom 
some of the simplest and commonest things — water, bread, and the 
juice of the grape. Every one can understand them, and yet they 
are as full of meaning and instruction as they are simple and abun- 
dant. 



422 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVI : 29, 30 



29. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until 
tliat day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. 

30. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives. 

This fact makes his ordinances universal, and thus typical of a 
kingdom for every race and every person. 



Library. — Tennyson's " Holy Grail " in the " Idyls of the King "; 
Lowell's "Vision of Sir Launfal." 



Pictures in the Boston. Public Library — on the walls of the 
Delivery Room. 

29. Drink it Nev/ with You. — The Lord's Supper is a prophe- 
cy of Christ's second coming, of the perfect triumph of his king- 
dom ; for we are to celebrate it till he comes. It contains a hope 
and a promise of victory and heaven. Our last view of Christ in the 
Gospels is not of death, but of an ever-living Saviour who once was 
dead, but now lives for evermore. It is the morning star. It is like 
the music of the unseen Highland regiment coming to relieve the 
siege of Lucknow. 

30. When They had Sung a Hymn. 

Library. — There is no reason to doubt that Jesus and his com- 
pany followed the custom ; and Jesus as the celebrant, would not 
only sing, but lead in the singing. (See a strikingly eloquent and 
sympathetic portrayal of the scene in " Philochristus," chap, xxviii.) 



Pictures. — The Last Supper, Da Vinci {Milaii), Raphael, {Florence), 
Titian (iE'j-rarza/), three by Tintoretto {Venice), S\gnox^\\\{Cortona), Bida, 
Giotto, Fra Angelico. 

Signorelli's Picture, in the Cathedral at Cortona, represents 
Christ as moving freely among the group of his disciples who are 
kneeling on a marble floor. " All of the twelve are filled with love 
and awe, except Judas, who kneels nearest to the spectator, and is 
engaged in counting and feeling the gold coins in his bag. His face 
wears an expression of disgust and bitterness." Painted in 1512. 

Leonardo da Vinci's Fresco, in the Prefectory of Sta Maria 
delle Grazie, at Milan, " was the most consummate outcome of his 



XXVI : 31-36 MATTHEW 423 



A.D. 30. 
Tbursday 
Eveningf, 

April 6. 

THE 

PASSOVER 

PASSION WEKK. 

JERUSALEM. 



31. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended 
because of me this night : for it is written, I will smite the 
Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad, 

32. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into 
Gahlee. 

33. Peter answered and said unto him. Though all men 
shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. 

34. Jesus said unto him. Verily I say unto thee. That this 
night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 

35. Peter said unto him. Though I should die with thee, yet 
will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples. 

36. T[ Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith 
unto the disciples. Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. 

genius. Every other picture of the Lord's Supper is dwarfed into 
insignificance by the side of this. Christ himself remains majestic in 
isolation, his wonderful majesty only slightly dimmed by sadness. 
The apostles are divided into four groups. 'At the right of the 
Saviour, Peter is leaning across the traitor Judas to whisper in the 
ear of the youthful and beautiful St. John that he should ask Christ 
whom he meant to indicate. Peter is ardent and excited ; John is 
sunk in sorrow. Judas is grasping the bag in his right hand ; while 
his left, half lifted from the table, shows that he too is alarmed ; his 
face is powerful and bad but not revolting. His arm has, at least in 
Raphael Mengs' engraving, with evil omen, upset the salt cellar.' " 

— Farrar. 

Tintoretto's Pictures at Venice. In the one in S. Giorgio 
Maggiore "the chief peculiarity is that the ascending smoke of the 
lamp becomes a choir of angels." 

" In the San Travaso picture, Judas, as though to show his utter 
indifference to the words of Christ, is helping hinjseLf to wine from a 
flask." — Farrar. 

Library.— Farrar's " Life of Christ in Art," " The Last Supper." 



34. Thou Shalt Deny me Thrice. 
Reference. See verses 69-75. 



36. Then cometh Jesus unto Gethsemane. 



Pictures. — Jesus in Gethsemane, Hoffmann, Delaroche, Jalabert, 
Correggio, Liska ; The Agony in the Garden, Diirer. 



424 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVI : 37, 38 

37. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be 
sorrowful and very heavy. 

38. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death : 
tarry ye here, and watch with me. 

A BALLAD OF THE TREES AND THEIR MASTER. 

" Into the woods my Master went, 
Clean forspent, forspent ; 
Into the woods my Master came. 
Forspent with love and shame. 
But the olives they were not blind to Him, 
The little gray leaves were kind to Him, 
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him, 
When into the woods He came. 

** Out of the woods my Master went, 
And He was well content , 
Out of the woods my Master came, 
Content with death and shame. 
When death and shame would woo Him last. 
From under the trees they drew Him last ; 
'Twas on a tree they slew Him last. 
When out of the woods He came." — Sidney Lamer. 



37. Began to be Sorrowful.— In the heathen fable Orpheus 
goes down, lyre in hand, to the Plutonic realm, to bring back again 
to life and love the lost Eurydice ; but Jesus, in his vicarious suffer- 
ings, goes down to hell itself, that he may win back from their sins 
and bear in triumph to the upper heavens a lost humanity. 



38. My Soul is Exceeding Sorrowful. — A friend once 

called the attention of Napoleon to the blanched face of an officer 

„ . as he was marching into battle, as showing that he was 

Heroism. j xt , ,• 1 1 , 

a coward. Napoleon replied that that man was the 

bravest officer in his army ; for he saw clearly and felt keenly his 

danger, and j<?/ went for 'wa7'd into the thickest of the battle. 



True Courage. — In an article in the Century for June, 1888, we 
are warned against misjudging as to courage. Moral courage, not 



XXVI ; 39> 40 MATTHEW 425 



39. And he went a little further, and feU on his face, and 
prayed, saying-, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup 
pass from me : nevertheless, not as I wiU, but as thou wilt. 

40. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them 
asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with 
me one hour ? 

1 



A.D. 30. 
Thursday 
Evening, 

MIDNIGHT, 

April 6. 

PASSION WEEK. 

AGONY 

IN GETH- 

SEMANE. 



indifference to danger, is the highest form of cour- 
age. Two soldiers were charging up a hill with ^ 
their regiment, in a desperate attempt to capture 
a battery. " When half way up, one of them turned to the other, 
and said, ' Why, you are as pale as a sheet. You look like a ghost. 
I believe you are afraid.' 'Yes, I am,' was the answer; 'and, if 
you were half as much afraid as I am, you'd have run long ago.' " 

" A locomotive engineer on an Eastern railroad, who was always 
selected for his nerve and whose courage, repeatedly dis- 
played in appalling accidents, was proverbial, was afraid in the quiet 
of his own home to go upstairs alone in the dark." 

One of the bravest officers in the Civil War, who had treated shot 
and shell with an indifference that had made him a marvel of 
courage, was in perpetual fear on a steamboat. Often the timid, 
who dread the smallest things, are far more courageous than those 
who physically have no thought of dread. The most perfect and 
delicate body or spirit see*" clearest, feels most intensely. 



39. He Went a Little Further. 

Alone, that worn-out word, — 
Yet all that poets sing, and grief hath known 
Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word, Alone. 

— Bulwer, 



Not as I Will, but as Thou Wilt.—" A minister praying over 
a child apparently dying, said, ' If it be thy will, spare.' The poor 
mother's soul, yearning for her beloved, exclaimed, 'It musth^ his 
will ; I cannot bear ifs.' Contrary to expectation, the child re- 
covered. But the mother, after almost suffering martyrdom by him 
when a stripling, lived to see him hanged before he was two-and- 
twenty." — Foster s Cyclopedia. 

Reference. See on vi. 10. 



426 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVI : 4I-44 



41. Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation : the spirit indeed is willing, 
but the flesh is weak. 

42. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if 
this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. 

43. And he came and found them asleep again : for their eyes were heavy. 

44. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the 
same words. 

An example of the folly of insisting on our own wills is found in 
the prayer of the Israelites in the wilderness for meat, which was 
answered by the flight of quails. 



The Wise Ignorant Man's Prayer.— An ignorant man, just 
become a Christian, knew not how to pray. But he took the letters 
of the alphabet and laid them before the Lord, saying, " Lord, I know 
not what I need or ought to pray for : take thou these letters and 
spell out the prayer I ought to offer and answer that." No man 
knows enough to insist on his own wishes rather than to tru3t all to 
the wisdom and love of God. 

Library.— Jacox's "Secular Annotations," Vol. I., p. 147. "De- 
sired Boon : Realized Bane." 

41. Watch and Pray. 
Reference. See on xxiv. 42. 



THE hundred gates. 

Of old within the valley of the Nile 

A city stood, and still its records stand, 

With massive walls encircling mile on mile. 
And gates at every hand. 

An hundred gates there were ; to south and north, 
To east and west, their hinges swinging wide. 

Let those within, if so they would, go forth 
To all the world outside. 

As Thebes of old, so has the human soul 
Her hundred gates ; lo, how in going forth 

She has all clime, all range, from pole to pole, 
East, west, and south and north. 



XXVI : 45-48 MATTHEW 427 



45. Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, 
Sleep on now, and take your rest : behold, the hour is at hand, 
and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 

46. Rise, let us be going : behold, he is at hand that doth 
betray me. 

47. 11 And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, 
came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, 
from the chief priests and elders of the people. 

48. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, 
Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he : hold him fast. 4 



A.D. 30. 

Aj>ril 7. 

Friday 
Morning, 

SOON AFTER 
MIDNIGHT. 

THE 

BETRAYAL 
NEAR GETH- 

SEMANE. 



Aye, and it needs strong guard at every gate ; 

Outside are roving, warring hosts of sin, 
Armed to the teeth, who ever watch and wait 

To steal unhindered in. 

There to lay waste the temple and the shrine, 
To fire with torch, to rob, to smite with sword, 

To ruin and make desolate this divine 
Fair city of the Lord. 

Then, O my soul, knowing the fate that waits 
One careless hour, a faithful vigil keep ! 

Set sentinels at all thy hundred gates. 
Nor let them faint nor sleep ! 
— Mrs. Clara Doty Bates, in the Sunday-School Times, 



DiJRER's Pictures. — Diirer made " The Passion " one of his 
chief subjects. " He designed two immortal series of wood engrav- 
ings, one, known as 'The Greater Passion,' published in 151 1, con- 
sisting of twelve folio wood-cuts; the other, in 1 516, called 'The 
Little Passion,' consists of thirty-seven smaller sketches." — Farrar. 
Among these are " The Man of Sorrows," " The Agony in the Gar- 
den," " The Arrest," "The Ecce Homo," "The Derision," "Christ 
before Pilate,' " Christ before Herod," " The Flagellation," " Christ 
Crowned with Thorns," " Pilate Washing His Hands," "Christ Sinks 
Beneath the Cross," "St. Veronica," "The Nailing of Christ to \he 
Cross," " The Crucifixion." 

Library. — Diirer's " Little Passion " is published by Macmillan. 
47, 48. Judas, . . , . he that Betrayed Him. 



i28 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVI : 45-48 

Pictures. — The Betrayal, Ary Scheffer, Griger, Van Dyck ; Christ 
Taken Captive, Hoffmann ; Judas Receiving the Silver, Giotto. 



Judas grew worse under the best influences, the best teaching, 
the perfect example, as dead trees decay most rapidly under the 
power of the sunshine and rain, which give vigor and growth to liv- 
ing trees. Weeds grow in the richest soil and in the brightest sun- 
shine. The result is that at last he opens the door of his heart to 
Satan and henceforth is under his influence, and, like the swine of 
Gadara driven down over the precipice into the sea, so Judas now 
rushes headlong into the depths of crime and infamy and ruin. 



In Retsch's illustrations of Goethe's " Faust " there is one plate 
where angels are dropping roses upon the demons who are contend- 
ing for Faust's soul, and every rose falls like molten metal, burning 
and blistering wherever it touches. 



Picture of Judas at Brussels.—" What did Judas gain by his 
victory } Let us count it all up. He gained thirty pieces of silver 
— eighteen dollars and sixty cents. That much was his in this bar- 
gain. Did he win anything else by his victory ? We do 
^Gaiifed^*^ not find that he did. Nothing else but shame and re- 
morse and awful anguish, and the suicide's death and 
six feet of earth in the potter's field. That was the fruit of his vic- 
tory. That was what he gained by being successful — eighteen dol- 
lats and sixty cents, and eternal infamy and everlasting shame and 
contempt. 

" A picture in the royal gallery of Brussels represents Judas wan- 
dering about on the night after the betrayal. He comes by chance 
upon the workmen who have been making the cross on which Christ 
shall be crucified to-morrow. A fire near by throws its light full on 
the faces of the workmen, who are sleeping peacefully while resting 
from their labor. Judas' face is somewhat in the shade, but it is 
wonderfully expressive of awful remorse and agony as he catches 
sight of the cross and the tools used in making it, — the cross which 
his treachery had made possible. 

" But still, though in the very torments of hell as it appears, he 
clutches his money-bag and seems to hurry on into the night. 



XXVI : 49-52 MATTHEW 429 

— •!• — 



49. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master ; A.D. 30. 
and kissed him. April 7. 

50. And Jesus said unto hir , Friend, wherefore art thou Friday- 
come ? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took Morning 
liina. EARLY. 

51. And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched rp^-g ARREST 
out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the NEAR GETH- 
high priest, and smote off his ear. SEMANE. 

52. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into »J< 1 

his place : for all they that take the sword shall perish with the 

sword. 

" That picture tells the story of the fruit of Judas' victory. The 
money-bag with eighteen dollars and sixty cents in it, and even that 
he could not long keep, carried off into the night of fiendish despair 
— that was all." — Rev. F. E, Clark, D.D., in Monday Club Sermons. 



49. And Kissed Him. — '^art^ilriatv, kissed again and again; rained 
kisses upon him. 

Library. — Matthew Arnold's Poems, " St. Brendan." This saint 
finds Judas on an iceberg one Christmas night, where each year he 
has an hour's respite for one kind deed to a leper, among his many 
crimes. 

" That germ of kindness in the womb 
Of mercy caught, did not expire ; 
Outlives my guilt, outlives my doom, 
And friends me in the pit of fire. 

" Once every year when carols wake 

On earth the Christmas night's repose 
Arising from the sinner's lake 

I journey to these healing snows." 

Robert Buchanan has a poem which represents the soul of Judas 
burdened ever with his dead body, which the earth rejected in hor- 
ror. His soul could not get rid of this "body of death." 



Historic Parallels. — " One who loves himself more than any 
man, however good, or any cause, however holy, is always capable 
of bad faith more or less heinous. He is a traitor at heart from the 



430 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVI : $2 

outset, and all that is wanted is a set of circumstances calculated to 

bring into play the evil elements of his nature. 

" Men of such type are by no means so rare as some may imagine. 

History, sacred and profane, supplies numerous examples of them 
playing an important part in human affairs. Balaam, 
who had the vision of a prophet and the soul of a miser, 

was such a man. Robespierre, the evil genius of the French Revo- 
lution, was another. The man who sent thousands to 
Eobespierre. , .„.,,.,. , . , , . 

tne guillotme had, m his younger days, resigned his 

office as a provincial judge, because it was against his conscience to 

pronounce sentence of death on a culprit found guilty of a capital 

offense. A third example, more remarkable than either, may be 

found in the famous Greek, Alcibiades,who, to unbounded 
Alcibiades. ... , , ,. . . , 

ambition, unscrupulousness, and licentiousness, united a 

warm attachment to the greatest and best of the Greeks. The man who 

in after years betrayed the cause of his native city, and went over to 

the side of her enemies, was in his youth an enthusiastic admirer 

and disciples of Socrates. How he felt tov/ards the Athenian sage 

may be gathered from words put into his mouth by Plato in one of 

his dialogues, — words which involuntarily suggest a parallel between 

the speaker and the unworthy follower of a greater than Socrates : 

* I experience towards this man alone (Socrates) what no one would 

believe me capable of : a sense of shame. For I am conscious of an 

inability to contradict him, and decline to do what he bids me ; and 

when I go away I feel myself overcome by the desire of popular 

esteem. Therefore I flee from him, and avoid him. But when I 

see him, I am ashamed of my admissions, and oftentimes I would be 

glad if he ceased to exist among the living; and yet I know well, 

that were that to happen, I should still be more grieved.' " 

— Prof. A, B. Bruce, D.D., in The Training of the Twelve. 



Library. — In his " Vision of Hell," " Dante has placed Judas in 
the lowest circles of the damned, as the sole sharer with Satan him- 
self of the very uttermost punishment." — Stalker. Poe's " Raven," 
with its sad refrain of " Never More." 

Compare Green's " Short History of the English People," I., 147, 
148. "Foul as it is, hell itself is defiled by the fouler presence of 
(King) John. Judas can no longer be lonely." The end of Judas 
was a tragic failure. He lost everything and gained nothing. 



XXVI: 53-^0 MATTHEW 431 



A.D. 30. 

Early 

Friday 

Morning, 

April 7. 

PASSION WEEK. 

THE TKIAL 

OF JESUS. 

JEKUSALEM. 



53. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, 
and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of 
angels ? 

54. But how then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it 
must be ? 

55. In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye 
come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take 
me ? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid 
no hold on me. 

56. But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets 4* 
might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him and fled. 

57. TI And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high 
priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. 

58. But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest's palace, and went in, and 
sat with the servants, to see the end, 

59. Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witnesses 
against Jesus, to put him to death ; 

60. But found none : yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. 
At the last came two false witnesses, 

53. Twelve Legions of Angels. 



Library. — In Whittier's poems, " The Legend of St. Mark " gives 
a beautiful story of angelic deliverance. 

" O weary ones, ye may not see 

Your helpers in their downward flight, 
Nor hear the sound of silver wings 

Slow beating through the hush of night ! 

" There are who like the Seer of old 
Can see the helpers God has sent. 
And how Life's rugged mountain side 
Is white with many an angel tent." 



The UNSEEN powers of the world are far mightier than the visi- 
ble manifestations of power we see around us. In a single drop of 
water there is electricity enough to kill a man. The rays of sunshine 
will lift up the great iron Menai bridge. 



59. Sought False Witnesses.— President Thwing says, "A Chris- 
tian man going into a strange city will find Christian things. A bad 



432 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVI : 61-68 



61. And said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to 
build it in three days. 

62. And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing ? what 
is it which these witness against thee ? 

63. But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I 
adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son 
of God ? 

64. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said : nevertheless I say unto you, Here- 
after shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in 
the clouds of heaven. 

65. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy ; 
what further need have we of witnesses ? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. 

66. What think ye ? They answered and said. He is guilty of death. 

67. Then did they spit in his face', and buffeted him ; and others smote him with 
the palms of their hands, 

68. Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee ? 

man going into a strange city will find bad things." An Englishman, 

returning from India, depreciated the work of the mis- 

® Found sionaries, saying, that he had never seen a missionary. 

not the Asked what his purpose was in India, he answered, "To 

Truth, but kill tigers." A missionary who heard the remark said, 

* ht^^ " ^ have been in India ten years, and I never saw a tiger." 

According to the reasoning of the traveler, there can be 

no tigers in India if there are no results of missionary work. Mrs. 

Leavitt says that people see missions as one would come to one of our 

school-houses after school is out, and declare that no one goes to 

school. — 

A Possible Array of Witnesses.— What an array of witnesses 
might have been found had Pilate wished to learn the truth 1 here 
a company of those who had been lame, but now were running to 
tell the story of their healing ; there a band of those who had been 
blind, but now could see ; lepers who had been cleansed ; demoniacs 
clothed, and in their right mind ; sick raised from their beds, and 
dead brought to life again ; sad hearts comforted ; sinful souls re- 
deemed ; ignorant minds enlightened ; wandering ones restored. 



63. Jesus Held his Peace.— "If you had a bent tube, one arm^ 

of which was the size of a pipe-stem, and the other big 

The Silence g^ouefh to hold the ocean, water would stand at the same 

of Christ. ^ 

height in one as in the other. Controversy equalizes 
fools and wise men in the 5ame way — ajid the fools hiow zL" 

— Oliver Wendell Holmes, 



XXVI : 69-75 MATTHEW 433 



A.D. 30. 

April 7. 

Early 

Friday 

miorniug, 

2 to 6 o'clock. 

PASSION WEEK. 

TRIAL 

OF CHRIST 

BEFORE THE 

JEWISH 

RULERS. 



69. Tf Now Peter sat without in the palace : and a damsel 
came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee, 

70. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what 
thou sayest. 

71. And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid 
saw him, and said unto them that were there, This/e//ow was 
also with Jesus of Nazareth. 

72. And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the 
man. 

73. And after a while came unto /it'm they that stood by, and 4« 
said to Peter, Surely thou also art o?ie of them ; for thy speech 
qewrayeth thee. 

74. Then began he to curse and to swear, sayings I know not the man. And 
immediately the cock crew. 

75. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the 
cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly. 

" Cato declares that man to approach nearest to a god who knows 
when and how to be silent." — Jacox. 



Holding One's Peace. — "John Wesley one day remarked to Dr. 
Adam Clarke, 'As I was walking through St. Paul's Churchyard, I 
observed two women standing opposite to one another. One was 
speaking and gesticulating violently, while the other 
stood perfectly still and in silence. Just as I came up ^^ ^ ^\\ ^ 
and was about to pass them the virago, clenching her fist 
and stamping her foot at her imperturbable neighbor, exclaimed, 
' Speak, wretch, that I may have something to say.' 'Adam,' said 
Wesley, ' that was a lesson to me. Silence is often the best answer 
to abuse.' " — Prize Illustration in London Sunday-School Chronicle. 



69-75. " O thou child of many prayers, 

Life hath quicksands, life hath snares. 



Picture. — Peter De?tving Jesus, Benj. West, Ribera, Harrach. 



Library. — Mrs. Browning's poems, the three sonnets, " The Two 
Sayings," " The Look," " The Meaning of the Look." 



74. Then Began to Curse and to Swear. — The moral of 
Balzac's " La Maratre " is " The necessity of a life of lying as a pun- 
ishment for the one great lie of a mercenary marriage. One great 



434 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVI : 69-75 

lie is put out to interest, and the interest is compound." So in one 
of Crabbe's " Tales," — 

" Such is his pain who, by his debt oppressed, 
Seeks by new bonds a temporary rest." — Jacox. 



An Outburst of an Old Habit.— It is probable that Peter, as 
a sailor, had learned to use oaths in his younger days, and had over- 
come the habit through his new life with Jesus. But " when a sud- 
den surprise of fear entangled Peter, the old Galilean boatman reas- 
serted himself, and he denied, and lied, and cursed, and swore. The 
Wesleyan Advocate tells of two ministers who were neighbors and 
friends, to one of whom, Mr. A., it became necessary to administer 
chloroform. During the delirium of waning consciousness he used 
very unclerical language, even doing as * the army in Flanders ' are 
said to have done. Some time afterward the other preacher, Mr. S.. 
dislocated his thigh bone, and the surgeon advised the use of chloro- 
form. The patient objected, saying he had tried to 

Two Expe- Y\MQ right, from his youth up, and would rather suffer, 
riences under , .1.11 .., , 

Chloroform, than now, m his old age, to put it in the power of any 

agent to make him disgrace the cause he loved so much, 

and which he had spent his life in trying to promote. 

" The reasoning, pro and con, I need not repeat. But the surgeon 
prevailed. Mr. S. inhaled the chloroform. When he was restored 
he asked, ' But how did I behave } ' * Beautifully, touchingly — you 
sung, and preached, and prayed, and called up mourners — you gave 
us a little of the best of everything.' 

" Now what is the key to this difference in two good men ? Mr. 
A. lived irreligiously, acquiring bad habits, to mature age. But Mr. 
S. became pious in boyhood, and lived consistently all his life. 

" Those who think to pursue a course of sin for years, and finally 
become Christians at the end, little know the power and permanence 
of evil habit. A tree was once broken down by the wind, but it was 
found on examination that it had been cracked many years before, 
and straightened up and healed ; but when the strain came it broke 
z'n the old crack. A broken bar of iron usually shows an old, rusty 
flaw ; and many a broken-down man may trace the final wreck of his 
life to the results of sins indulged in years before. 

—//. L. Hastings, D.D. 

Outbreaking in Age of Youthful Errors.— It is hard to get 
wholly rid of early sins. I remember an old house in a country vil- 



XXVI : 69-75 MATTHEW 435 



lage of Massachusetts which was once a tavern, -i 
with the bar-room where now is the parlor. But 
a friend who lived in the house said that, though 
more than twenty years had passed away, yet if 
that parlor were kept closed a few days it would 
smell of the rum and tobacco which defiled it in 
its early bar-room days. 



A.B. 30. 

Early 

Friday 

Morning) 

Before 
Daylight. 

PASSION WEEK. 

PETER'S 
DENIALS. 



Peter's Repentance. — A diamond may fall into the mire, but it 
is a diamond still. 

• Reference. See under iii. 7. 



Faults of Good Men.—" Take the faults of the good men of the 
Bible, and put them all together, and the combination is frightful. 
.... The character of the very Devil might be made up from a 
mosaic of the bad side of good men." — Sunday- School Times. 

So could we form a Thersites, a human monster, of the physical 
defects, the warts, moles, wrinkles, and pimples of beautiful women 
or noble-looking men. 

" Some Christians are like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, — as far 
gone from uprightness as it is possible to go without toppling over. 
The world is much more likely to pull over the Campanile at Pisa 
than the Campanile to lift the world." — Sunday-School Times. 

Peter's Wrong Course with Temptation. — " How to Beat 
the French " was the title of a lecture delivered in i860, by Prince 
Frederick Charles, then a young soldier with abundant enthusiasm, 
but no fame. One of the chief points — borrowed, by the way, con- 
fessedly from the French tactics — was this : *' Never defend passively, 
but offensively.'' — The Advance, 

The same principle is taught by the Latin proverb from the history 
of the wars of Rome with Carthage, " Carry the war into Africa." 



The Drop of Ink in a Book.—" One of the brightest of our 
modern writers has given us a simile somewhat like this : If a care- 
less reader lets fall a drop of ink in among the leaves of a book he 
is just closing, it will strike through the paper both ways. When he 
opens the volume again, he can begin with the earliest faint appear- 
ance of the stain, and measure by its increase his progress toward 
the great black point of defacement. Open it now anywhere, and 
he will detect some traces of the coming spot. He can turn back to 
it ; he can turn forward from it. So of this great base act of the 
apostle Peter, which we call emphatically the denial. It is a stain 
in the middle of his life. But for a long time, on the previous pages 
of his life, he had been preparing for this disaster." 

— C. S, Robinson, in Sunday-School Times. 



436 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVII : I-14 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
4. ^ 



A.D. 30. 

Aj^rz7 7. 

Friday 

JTlorniiig, 

About 
Daylight. 

PASSION WEEK. 



THE TEIAL 
OF JESUS. 



1. When the morning was come, all the chief priests and 
elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to 
death : 

2. And when they had bound him, they led /tzm away, and 
delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. 

3. Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that 
he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the 
thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4" *i* 

4. Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the inno- 
cent blood. And they said. What z's that to us ? see thou to that. 

5. And he cast down the pieces of sUver in the temple, and departed, and went 
and hanged himself. 

6. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put 
them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. 

7. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury 
strangers in. 

8. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day. 

9. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying. And 
they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of 
the chilldren of Israel did value ; 

10. And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. 

11. And Jesus stood before the governor : and the governor asked him, saying, 
Art thou the King of the Jews ? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. 

12. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. 

13. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness 
against thee ? 

14. And he answered him to never a word ; insomuch that the governor marvelled 
greatly. 

Reference. — 3. "Judas." See on xxvi. 47, 48. 



Pictures. — Munkacsy's famous picture of Christ Before Pilate 
(excellent chromos of this picture by American Tract' Society) ; 
Diirer's Christ Before Pilate. 

12. He Answered Nothing.— xxvi. 63. 

"A flower has been discovered in South America which is only 
visible when the wind blows ; it is of the species cactus, and when 
the wind blows a number of beautiful flowers protrude from the 
little lumps on the stalks." — Anon, 



XXVII: 15-19 MATTHEW 43T 



15. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto 
the people a prisoner, whom they would. 

16. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. 

17. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said 
unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you ? Barabbas, 
or Jesus which is called Christ ? 

18. For he knew that for envy they haddeUvered him. 

19. IT When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife ^ 
sent unto him, saying. Have thou nothing to do with that just 

man : for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. 

So in these trials of Jesus are brought out his noble nature, his 
love, his patience, his faith, his hope. 



A.I>. 30. 

April 7. 

Friday 

Morniiig^, 

About 
Daylight. 

PASSION WEEK. 

THE TRIAL 

OF JESUS. 



Pilate's life is like a beacon light to warn from dangerous 
rocks ; like the sign " Christian " and " Hopeful," put at the 
entrance to the way to Giant Despair's castle. 



17. Jesus or Barabbas. 

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide. 
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side : 
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom or 

blight, 
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right, 
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and that light." 

— Lowell. 



Pilate and the Jews threw away the great opportunity of their 
lives. 

" Of all sad words of tongue or pen. 
The saddest are these, ' It might have been.' " 

— Whzttier's Maud Muller. 



19. His Wife Sent Unto Him. 



Picture. — The Dream of Pilate s Wife. " Many will remember 
the picture. The Dream of Pilate s Wife, in the Dore Gallery in Lon- 
don. The dreaming woman is represented standing in a balcony 
and looking up an ascending valley, which is crowded with figures. 
It is the vale of years or centuries, and the figures are the genera- 
tions of the church of Christ yet to be. Immediately in front of 



438 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVII : 2O-23 

20. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask 
Barabbas, and destroy Jesus, 

21. The governor answered and said unto them, whether of the twain will ye that 
I release unto you ? They said, Barabbas. 

22. Pilate saith unto them. What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ ? 
They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. 

23. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done ? But they cried out the 
more, saying. Let him be crucified. 

her is the Saviour himself, bearing his cross ; behind and around 
him are his twelve Apostles and the crowds of their converts ; be- 
hind these, the church of the early centuries, with the great fathers ; 
further back, the church of the Middle ages, with the majestic forms 
and warlike accoutrements of the Crusaders rising from its midst ; 
behind these the church of modern times, with its heroes ; then 
multitudes upon multitudes that no man can number pressing for- 
ward in broadening ranks, till far aloft, in the white and shining 
heavens, lo, tier on tier, and circle upon circle, with the angels of 
God hovering above them and on their flanks; and in the midst, 
transfigured to the brightness of a star, the cross, which in its rough 
reality he is bearing wearily below." — Stalker. 

ECCE Homo. — Pilate led Jesus out before the rulers, wearing the 
crown of thorns and the purple robe (John xix. 5, 6), and said, '*Ecce 
ho7no" Behold, the man ! Let us hear the Ecce homo, and behold 
the man before us. Here is the noblest exhibition of love ; here is 
a perfect example ; here are all the highest virtues in their highest 
exercise; here is the fulfilment of ages of prophecy; here is the 
atonement in progress for the redemption of man ; here is the cen- 
tral battle, and here is to be the central victory of the universe. 
One recalls Shakespeare's words about Brutus : — 
" His life was gentle, and the elements 
So mixed in him, that nature might stand" up 
And say to all the world, This was a Man ! " 

Farrar quotes Marcus Aurelius as saying, " Whatever any one 
does and says, I must be good and true, as though the 

Saying of gold, or the purple, or the emerald were always saying 
thus : Whatever happens, I must be an emerald and 
keep my color." 

Picture. — Ecce Homo, Correggio {Nat. Gallery^ London), Cigoli {Pitti 
Palace, Flore7ice), Guido Reni {Dresden). 



XXVII : 24, 25 MATTHEW 439 



24. 1[ When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but 
that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his 
hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood 
of this just person : see ye to it. 

25. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on 
us, and on our children. 



A.D. 30. 

April 7. 
Friday- 
Mo rnin^. 

JERUSALEM. 

PASSION WEEK. 
JESUS 

BEFORE 
PILATE. 



Library. — The hymn beginning 

" I see the crowd in Pilate's hall, 
I mark their wrathful mien. 
Their shouts of ' Crucify ' appall. 
With blasphemy between." 

— Sabbath Hymn Book, 747. 

24. He Washed his Hands, . . . Saying, I am Innocent. — 
Prof. Marcus D. Buell, of Boston, has stated that Neapolitan scolds 
and passionate lovers, quick to finish a quarrel by a dagger-thrust, 
attribute the violence of their temper to the disturb- 
ances of neighboring Vesuvius. Pilate's Vain 

It was bad enough for Adam to say, "The woman Egga^'e^Re^ 
whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the sponsibility. 
tree"; it is worse for his sons and daughters to say, 
" The nature which thou gavest to be with us overcomes us. The 
conjunction of planets causes us to steal. A volcanic eruption 
makes us murderers. Drought drives us to divorce. Too much 
oxygen fires our blood, and impels us to carnivals of crime. Elec- 
tricity breeds immorality." — G. M. HainmeU. 

Pilate blamed the people. Men now blame circumstances, tempta- 
tions, companions, difficulties ; but all equally in vain. 



25. His Blood be on Us, and on Our Children.— That blood 
was upon them, not as vengeance, but as a natural consequence of 
their conduct, as any one can see who reads the accounts. 

" Judas died by his own hand. Pilate was soon recalled, degraded, 
banished to Gaul, where he committed suicide, The tov/er from 
which he said to have precipitated himself is still standing. The 
prize for which he staked his soul never became his. Herod died in 
infamy and exile; Caiaphas was deposed the next year." 

—G, W. Clark. 



44:0 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XV VI I : 26-3O 



26. Then released he Barabbas unto them : and when he had scourged Jesus, he 
deHvered him to be crucified. 

27. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gath- 
ered unto him the whole band of soldiers. 

28. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. 

29. T[ And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and 
a reed in his right hand : and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, 
saying, Hail, King of the Jews ! 

30. And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. 

" The house of Annas destroyed a generation later by an infuriated 

mob, and his son was dragged through the streets and 

M rd* rs^ scourged and beaten, to his place of murder. Some of 

those who shared in and witnessed the scenes of that day 

— and thousands of their children — also shared in and witnessed the 

long horrors of that siege of Jerusalem which stands unparalleled in 

history for its unutterable fearfulness, They had forced the Romans 

to crucify their Christ, and they and their children were themselves 

crucified in myriads by the Romans. They had given thirty pieces 

of silver for their Saviour's blood, and they were themselves sold in 

thousands for yet smaller sums." — Farrar, 

"Legend has it that Pilate, in extreme misery, cast himself from 
an Alpine peak into a mountain lake. The mountain is still called 
by his name, Pilatus, and a glittering lake, which reflects its dark 
shadow, bears the shape of the glorious cross." — Prof. Battle, 



Pictures. — Christ Rejected, Benj. West; Flagellation of Christy 
SignorelH, Dore, Hoffmann ; Christ at the Column, Velasquez {IVat. 
Gallery, London)', Christ After the Flagellation, Moretto {Brescia). 



And Mocked Him. — " * Let us go and see that crazy man try to 
sail a boat by steam,' said one to an idle crowd in New York. They 
hurried off to the Hudson. Thousands were there to see that crazy 
man's novel experiment. That boat went, 
Modern " ' So with a lot of romantic girls and crazy boys you 

"Tcr^'d* expect to see the world converted,' said a popular jour- 
Things, "al of the Andover and other missionaries in the begin- 
ning of the American missionary enterprise. 
"While the first steamboat was crossing the Atlantic Ocean a 



XXVII: 31-33 MATTHEW Ml 



31. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe 
off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led hijn 
away to crucify him. 

32. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, 
Simon by name : him they compelled to bear his cross. 

33. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, 
that is to say, a place of a skull, 



A.I>. 30. 

April 7. 

Friday 

Morning. 

THE 

SCOURGING. 

THE 

MOCKERY 

PASSION WEEK. 



pamphlet was being circulated showing how futile and visionary was 
such a plan, and why it could never be accomplished. Edison's 
inventions have even in recent years been treated in the same 
manner. 

" Nearly all original young authors have been laughed at and their 
manuscripts rejected. 

" Carlyle's early books were jokes of the critics. 

'' The early poems of Wordsworth were criticised as being next to 
idiotic. Byron says that this poet wrote so naturally of the ' Idiot 
Boy' that he must be the hero of his own tale. 

"Tennyson's early volume of poems, 'The Poems of Two Broth- 
ers/ was a failure. Irving's first book manuscript was refused. 
'Jane Eyre' was again and again rejected. A publisher advised 
Miss Alcott, after reading one of her first manuscripts, to ' stick to 
teaching.' 

"When Disraeli first attempted to speak in Parliament he pitched 
his voice too high and the Commons roared with laughter. 'You 
will not hear me now,' he saia, 'but the time will come when you 
shall hear me.' That time came. 

"Science is one long record of the ridicule of new discovery. Dr. 
John Hunter's discoveries in anatomy were the jibes of the medical 
profession. When one physician laughed at him because he did not 
I publish his investigations in Latin, Dr. Hunter sharply returned, ' I 
would teach him on a dead body what he never knew in any lan- 
guage, Latin or Greek.' Jenner (who first vaccinated) was both 
ridiculed and abused." 

— Hezekiah Butterworth, in Our Sunday Afternoon. 



Mockeries. — Some of the best people, and the best causes, and 
the noblest truths have been mocked and derided at first. "Chris- 
tian," "Puritan," " Methodist " were names given in derision, but 
now are crowns of glory, and are written on the banners of con- 
quering hosts. Rome's early days were looked upon with contempt, 



442 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVII : 34 



34. They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall : and when he had tasted 
thereof^ he would not drink. 

but she became mistress of the world. Many of the world's greatest 
warriors, prophets, authors, and artists have passed through the ex- 
perience of mockery. It is better to be mocked than a mocker. 
Men may despise the acorn, but the oak is hidden there. They may 
sneer at the small black seed, but exquisite flowers are enfolded 
within it. 



Pictures. — Jesiis Bearing the Cross, Raphael, Bida, Dor6; Eleva- 
tion of the Cross, Rubens, Rembrandt ; The Crucifixion, Rubens, 
Durer,Guido Reni, Tintoretto, Munkacsy, Plockhorst, E. Burne Jones. 



On the Way to Calvary. — Some touching legends gather 
around this sad journey, St. Veronica is said to have wiped the 
bloody and perspiring face of Jesus with her head 
cloth, on which thereupon became imprinted his fea- ®^°" "*' 
tures. It was also at this time, it is said, that the wan- i^„ j°,y^'* 
dering Jew refused to let Jesus rest a moment against 
his porch, and hence was condemned to keep moving on, without 
rest, till the last day. 

Library. — Farrar's " Life of Christ in Art " (Veronica) ; Farrar's 
and Geikie's " Life of Christ "; Mrs. Jamieson's " Sacred and Legend- 
ary Art." 

Stations of the Cross. — In many of the Catholic churches in 
Europe there is a series of about a dozen pictures, representing the 
real and supposed scenes on this journey from the Pretorium to 
Calvary, called the Stations of the Cross. The series in the Cathe- 
dral at Antwerp is very beautiful. 



Alleviation, — A Parable. — " In the Via Dolorosa Jesus experi- 
enced two alleviations of his suffering : the strength of a man 
relieved his body of the burden of the cross, and the pain of his soul 
was cooled by the sympathy of women. Is it not a parable — a para- 
ble of what men and women can do for him still ? Christ needs the 



XXVII : 35-3S MATTHEW 443 



35. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting 
lots : that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, 
They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture 
did they cast lots, 

36. And sitting down they watched him there ; 

37. And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS 
JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. 

38. Then were there two thieves crucified with him ; one on 
the right hand, and another on the left. 

* Strength of men.' ' From women he seeks sympathy.' ' It was to him 
a foretaste of the splendid devotion which he was yet to receive 
from the womanhood of the world.' " — Stalker, 



A.B. 30. 
Friday, 

AJ>ril 7, 
9 to 3 o'clock. 

PASSIOK "VTEEK. 

CALVARY. 

THE 

CRUCIFIXION 

^ ^ 



Library. — The Independent, for May 2, 1895, has the description 
of a crucifixion in China, by an eye-witness. 



A noble deed transfigures the place where it is performed, as Cal- 
vary, the place of execution, has become the centre of the world's 
history and the world's salvation. 



38. Two Thieves Crucified with Him.— Dean Farrar refers to 
a scene represented on a lamp found in the Catacombs as the first 
distant approach to a crucifixion : " Between the two robbers on 
their crosses is a green, blooming cross, on either side of which a 
little angel kneels ; and over it, in a nimbus, between the sun and 
the moon, the head of Christ." 



Faith looks back and says, 
" Christ died for me ; " 
Above, and cries, 
" He lives for me ;" 
Forward and whispers, 
" He comes for me." 



Library. — Whittier's Poems, "The Crucifixion"; Farrar's "Life 
of Christ in Art," '• The Crucifixion in Art."' 



4i4r SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVII : 35-38 

** Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own 



Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet 'tis Truth alone is strong, 
And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng 
Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong." 

— Lowell. 



Defeats that are Victories. — (i) Bunker Hill Monument 
commemorates a defeat, which for a long time was looked upon with 
chagrin and disappointment ; and yet that defeat was really the 
birth-throe of our country, and had more glorious results and more 
wide-reaching influence than most victories. (2) So the famous 
Thermopylae was a defeat, but has thrilled the ages because it was 
a moral victory. 

" Waterloo," says Victor Hugo, " is the change of front of the 
universe." Nearer truth is this : Calvary is the change of front of the 
universe. 



The cross on Golgotha will never save thy soul, 
The cross in thine own heart alone can make thee whole ; 
Christ rose not from the dead, Christ still is in the grave, 
If thou for whom he died, art still of sin the slave. 

— Johannes Schaffer, 

Zeleucus. — The familiar story of Zeleucus, king of the Locri, 
is best told and explained in the discourse of Caleb Burge, in Prof. 
Park's book on " The Atonement." This is the best exposition I 
have seen of the governmental theory of the atonement. 



The Cross the Symbol of Love.— The cross declares in 
"letters that can be read from the stars" God's love to man. 
Christ was God himself, and expressed God's own heart. God did 
not put punishment upon an innocent person. The atonement on 
the cross was a voluntary sacrifice. When the Greeks were besieging 
Troy, and met with ill success, Calchas, the priest, told them that the 
only way to appease the offended goddess, and gain the victory. 



XXVII : 39-42 MATTHEW 445 



A.D. 30. 

April 7. 
Friday, 

) to 3 o'clock. 

JESUS 

ON THE 

CROSS. 

CAXVAKT. 



39, T[ And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their 
heads, 

40. And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, andbuild- 
est it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, 
come down from the cross. 

4T. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him^ with the 
scribes and elders, said, 

42. He saved others ; himself he cannot save. If he be the 
King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we wiU believe him. 

was to sacrifice to Diana, Iphigenia, the beautiful daughter of King- 
Agamemnon. And these brave men of old are said to have taken 
her by strategy and force, and brought this innocent girl to the 
altar to slay her in their stead. This sacrifice (though she was 
rescued) was unworthy of them, was mean and unjust beyond words 
to express. But whenever any persons have offered themselves, 
as Horatius and his comrades at the bridge of Rome, or the nobles 
of Calais to Edward the Sixth, the sacrifice has been the height of 
heroism. The sacrifice expressed the highest love possible. 

" By the light of burning martyr-fires Christ's bleeding feet I track, 
Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back." 

— Lowell. 



Seraphim and the Crucifixion. — Mrs. Browning has pictured 
with rare beauty the effect of Christ's death upon two seraphim who 
lingered a little behind the hosts of heaven that had gathered about 
the cross. One of them, as he thinks of the meaning of the 
wonderful sacrifice, is troubled by the thought that men will now 
have more reason to love God than even the angels have. The 
other remonstrates, saying, " Do we love not " ? " Yea, but not as 
man shall," he answered. 

" Oh ! not with this blood on us — and this face, 
Still, haply, pale with sorrow that it bore 
In our behalf, and tender evermore 
With nature all our own, upon us gazing — 
Nor yet with these forgiving hands upraising 
Their unreproachful wounds, alone to bless ! 
Alas, Creator ! shall we love thee less 
Than mortals shall ? " 

— J. R.Miller, in Westminster Teacher, 



446 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVII : 43-50 



43. He trusted in God ; let him deliver him now, if he will have him : for he said, 
I am the Son of God. 

44. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. 

45. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth 
hour. 

46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama 
sabachthani ? that is to say, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me ? 

47. Some of them that stood there, when they heard that^ said, This man calleth 
for Elias. 

48. And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with 
vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. 

49. The rest said. Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. 

50. Tl Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 

CoRREGGio's Picture-Motto. — A great religious painter has put 
under his picture of the bleeding, thorn-crowned Sufferer: 

" I have borne these things for thee ; 
What hast thou done for me } " 

This impressive picture of Correggio's is in the Royal Gallery of 
Munich. The rope which binds the hands of the Divine Victim is 
represented as depending over the Latin inscription, 

" Ego, pro te, haec passus sum : 
Tu vero quid fecisti pro me ? " -—Macduff, 



45. Darkness Over all the Land. — " The Gospel of Peter 
(lately discovered) states that ' many went about with lamps, 
supposing it to be night/ and that the darkness lasted until Jesus was 
taken from the cross, when the earthquake took place ; 'then the 
sun shone out, and it was found to be the ninth hour.'" 

— Int. Crit. Com. 



THE DYING WORDS OF REV. DR. ALFRED COOKMAN. 

He lay upon his dying couch. 
Sustained by grace ; amazing grace! 
For while pain racked each quivering nerve, 
Heaven's glory shone upon his face. 
For he was washed, 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 



XXVII: 51-53 Matthew 447 



51. And, behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain 
from the top to the bottom ; and the earth did quake, and the 
rocks rent ; 

52. And the gjaves were opened, and many bodies of the 
saints which slept arose, 

53. And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and 
went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. 

" If now my Lord should come and ask 
If life or death my choice would be, 
I'd say, My Lord, I have no choice, 
Do thou as seemeth good to thee. 
So sweetly am I now 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 



A.D. 30. 

April 7, 
Friday. 

3 o'clock p.m. 
JESUS 
ON THE 
CROSS. 

CALVARY. 



" I had a vision lying here 



" Methought my sainted father came 
And holding me in love's embrace 
He drew me on toward the throne, 
And said, when near that glorious place, 
This is my son, 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 

My brother came to greet me now. 
Rejoiced to find me safe at home ; 
Then leading me to Jesus' feet, 
He said, my Lord, Alfred has come, 
My brother dear, 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb. 
* Two arms around my neck were thrown, 
Two lips were closely pressed on mine ; 
My precious boy exulting cried, 
The glory Lord be ever thine ; 
My papa's here. 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb." 
With eyelids closed, he seemed to see 
The fiery chariot by his side : 
One last fond look on loved ones here. 
Then with triumphant voice he cried, 

" I'm sweeping through the gates. 
Washed in the blood of the Lamb," — Juniata. 



448 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVII : 54-60 



54. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw 
the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly 
this was the Son of God. 

55. And many women were there beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from 
Galilee, ministering unto him : 

56. Among which was Mary Magdalene, and Maiy the mother of James and Joses, 
and the mother of Zebedee's children. 

57. When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, 
who also himself was Jesus' disciple : 

58. He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded 
the body to be delivered. 

59. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 

60. And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock : and he 
rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. 

54. Truly this Was the Son of God. 

" But whether on the scaffold 
Or in the battle's van, 
The fittest place for man to die 

Is where he dies for man." — Michael J. Barry. 



Pictures. — At the Foot of the Cross, Bartolommeo, Correggio ; 
Darkness Coming Over the Land, Gerome ; John Taking the Virgin 
Mary home, Dobson, PlockhOrst. 



60. Laid it in His own New Tomb.— These three days were the 
darkest in the whole experience of the apostles, every hope, every 
desire, the Saviour, the promised kingdom, were all buried in the 

tomb. But it was like a seed planted, in order to spring 
Fable. "P ^^<^ [become a great tree. There is an old Persian 

fable that the earth was created a great barren plain, 
without one plant or tree. An angel was sent to scatter broad- 
cast the choicest seeds over all. Satan, seeing the seeds lying on 
the ground, said " This is the work of the Almighty : I will frus- 
trate his plans." So he proceeded to bury every seed in the soil, and 
to summon sun and rain to make it rot away. But, while he gazed 
with malignant smile on the ruin he had made, the seed germinated 
and sprang up from the soil, and clothed the whole earth with plants 
and flowers, in a loveliness undreamed before. And a voice came 
from heaven, " Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened 
except it die," 



XXVII : 6i-66 MATTHEW M9 



A.I>. 30. 

April 7. 
Friday, 

3 to 6 o'clock 

p.m. 

DEATH 

AND BUEIAL. 

CALVAKY. 



61. And there was Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, sit- 
ting over against the sepulchre. 

62. ^ Now the next day, that followed the day of the prepa- 
ration, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate, 

63. Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while 
he was yet aiive, After three days I will rise again. 

64. Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure ,^ 
until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal 
him away, and say unto the people. He is risen from the dead : 

so the last error shall be worse than the first, 

65. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch : go your way, make it as sure as ye can. 

66. So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a 
watch. 

Pictures. — The Descetit froin the Cross, Rubens {Antwerp, An- 
gelico {Florence), Rembrandt {Munich), Volterra, Dore. 

" Nothing can be sweeter, purer, more reverent than the lunette 
(National Gallery, London), in which Francia has painted " The Vir- 
gin and two angels weeping over the dead body of Christ." There 
is no horror in Francia's picture. Christ is dead, but is 

still beautiful and divine in death .... There is hope ^^®t*of 

^ Fraucia. 
and even joy amid the sorrow of the Virgin and the 

angels, who feel that the death of Jesus must ultimately involve the 
the death of Death himself." 

"The best and grandest Pieta produced in the 17th century (about 
1630), is undoubtedly that of Van Dyck in the Museum at Antwerp. 
Under a dark and stormy sky, the Virgin, with arms outspread, and 
a face of inexpressible anguish, is seated at the mouth of the sepul- 
chral cave. The dead Christ is a noble figure .... the 
head, still encircled by its flashing nimbus, rests upon the y^^^\ ^\ 
mother's knees. St. John, a young man of grand fea- 
tures, with flowing curls, is uplifting the right hand and points out 
the wounds of the nails to an adoring angel, who with clasped hands 
is leaning towards him out of the clouds. Another strong angel, 
with wings still unfolded, is kneeling at Christ's feet, and his long 
fair tresses fall over his shoulders as he hides his face in his robe to 
conceal the passion of his tears." — Farrar, i?i Christ in Art. 



450 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVIII ; I-/ 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



1. In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the 
first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other 
Mary to see the sepulchre. 

2. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel 
of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back 
the stone from the door, and sat upon it. 

3. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white 
as snow : 

4. And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as 
dead men. 

5. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye : for I know 
that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. 

6. He is not here : for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord 
lay. 

7. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead ; and, be- 
hold, he goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see him : lo, I have told you. 



A.D. 30. 

April 9. 

Sunday 

morning. 

THE 
RESURREC- 
TION AND 
APPEAR- 
ANCES OF 
JESUS. 

JERUSALEM. 



Variations in the Narrative.— In the accounts of the different 
evangelists there are a number of variations and sometimes slight 
apparent contradictions, but all can be put together in one consistent 
story, as has often been done. However, we must remember that 
this is always true of independent histories of an event seen by dif- 
ferent observers from different standpoints, and is a proof of the reli- 
ability of the story. If all had exactly agreed it would be proof of 
collusion. The same event presents a different aspect to each ob- 
server. Even if there were contradictions, which there are not, they 
would not discredit the fact. Thus, there was a real battle of Wa- 
terloo ; although, as Chadwick says, " When the generals of Henry 
the Fourth strove to tell him what passed after he was wounded at 
Aumale, no two of them agreed in the course of events which gave 
them victory. Two armies beheld the battle of Waterloo, but who 
can tell when it began 1 At ten o'clock, said the Duke of Welling- 
ton. At half-past eleven, said General Alava, who rode beside him. 
At twelve, according to Napoleon and Drouet ; and at one, according 
to Ney." Probably it began at different times in different parts. 



I. As IT Began to Dawn, 
etc. 



CAME Mary Magdalene, 



XXVIII : 8-10 



MATTHEW 



451 



8. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre vrith fear 
and great joy ; and did run to bring his disciples word. 

g. 1 And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus 
met them, saymg. All hail. And they came and held him by 
the feet, and worshipped him. 

lo. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid : go tell my 
brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see 



MYRRH-BEARERS. 

Three women crept at break of day, 
Agrope along the shadowy way 
Where Joseph's tomb and garden lay. 

Each in her throbbing bosom bore 
A burden of such fragrant store 
As never there had lain before. 



Spices, the purest, richest, best, 
That e'er the musky East possessed. 
From Ind to Araby the blessed. 

Had they, with sorrow-riven hearts, 
Searched all Jerusalem's costliest marts, 
In quest of nards whose pungent arts 

Should the dead sepulchre imbue 
With vital odors through and through, 
'Twas all their love had leave to do. 

Christ did not need their gifts ; and yet 
Did either Mary once forget 
Her offering ? Did Salome fret 

Over those unused aloes ? Nay ! 

They did not count as waste that day 

What they had brought their Lord. The way 



A.D. 30. 

April 9. 

Sanday 

Morning. 

THE 
RESURREC- 
TION AND 
APPEAR- 
ANCES OP 
JESUS. 

JEKUSALEM, 



Home seemed the path to heaven. They bear 
Henceforth about the robes they wear 
The clinging perfume everywhere. 



452 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVIII : II-15 



11. T[ Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, 
and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. 

12. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they 
gave large money unto the soldiers, 

13. Saying, Say ye, his disciples came by night, and stole him away^ while we 
slept. 

14. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. 

15. So they took the money, and did as they were taught : and this saying is com- 
monly reported among the Jews until this day. 

So, ministering, as erst did these, 
Go women forth by twos and threes, 
Unmindful of their morning ease. 

Myrrh-bearers still, at home, abroad, 
What paths have holy women trod. 
Burdened with votive gifts to God ! 

Through tragic darkness, murk and dim. 
Where'er they see the faintest rim 
Of promise — all for sake of Him 

Who rose from Joseph's tomb. They hold 
It just such joys as these of old 
To tell the tale the Marys told. 

Rare gifts whose chiefest worth was priced 
By this one thought, that all sufficed : 
Their spices have been bruised for Christ. 

— Margaret J. Preston. 

Not she with traitorous kiss her Master stung ; 
Not she denied him with unfaithful tongue 
She when apostles fled could danger brave, 
Last at his cross and earliest at his grave. 

— Mrs. Browning. 



Pictures. — The Resurrection^ Albrecht Diirer (in the "Greater 
Passion "), Mantegna (Nat. Gallery, London), Naack, Fra. Bartolommeo 
{Pitti Palace, Florence), Luca della Robbia, Perugino(Fa//^iz«), Raphael 
( Vatican), Rembrandt {Munich)-, The Atigel at the Sepulchre, Dore ; 
The Three Marys at the Tomb, PlockhOrst. 



XXVIII : II-I5 MATTHEW 453 



" 'Tis the spring of souls to-day ; 
Christ hath burst his prison, 
And from three days' sleep in death, 
As the sun, hath risen." 



A.B. 30. 

April g. 

Sunday 

Morning. 

THE 
RESURKEC- 
TION 4ND 

A pop] A "p 

In the Drama of Alcestis, by Euripides, there ances op 

is a vivid picture of Hercules, " half 8:od, half man, JESUS. 

, ° JERUSALEM. 

encountermg Thanatos (Death) m personal con- 
flict and overcoming him at the tomb, and then 
restoring to life and light the pure, devoted, self-sacrificing Alcestis.' 



The Proof of Immortality. — The resurrection of Jesus is the 
proof of immortal life beyond the grave ; that death does not end 
all, but the soul lives after the body dies. 

" A fox once came upon a cave, into which he saw many foxes had 
entered, the sand being full of footprints. He was about 
to pass in when his cunning eye detected that all the '^^q * * 
footprints pointed one way. All were turned inwards, 
and there were none leading out of the cave. We have come to a 
great cave — the grave — and its entrance is marked by many foot- 
prints. All lead in and none out. But Christ has set his feet the 
other way ; and now, if we go into this cave, we shall follow him out 
again." — London Sunday-School Chronicle. 



"There was once a famous cape reputed to be the fatal barrier to 
the navigation of the ocean. Of all those whom the winds or the 
currents had drawn into its waters it was said that none 
had reappeared. A bold navigator determined to sur- Q^^^^y^ 
mount the obstacles. He opened the route to the East 
Indies, acquired for his country the riches of the world, and changed 
the Cape of Storms into the Cape of Good Hope. So Christ has 
proved himself death's conqueror and made the grave to be the gate 
to life for us." — Christian Age. 



Like ships that sailed from sunny isles, 
But never came to shore." 



Life, a Flitting Sparrow. — Paulinus preached the gospel in 
Northumbria, England, in the early ages to King Edwin and his 



454 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVIII: II-15 

warriors. Edwin was silent, but one of his aged warrior-sages arose 
and said, " Around us lies the black land of Night." Then, 

" Athwart the room a sparrow 

Darts from the open door : 
Within the happy hearth-light 

One red flash, and no more I 
We see it come from darkness. 

And into darkness go : — 
So is our life. King Edwin ! 

Alas that it is so ! 

" But if this pale Paulinus 

Have somewhat more to tell ; 
Some news of Whence and Whither, 

And where the soul will dwell : — 
If on that outer darkness 

The sun of hope may shine, 
He makes life worth the living: 

I take his God for mine." — Anon, 



A Visiting Angel.— -If some angel from a distant star should 
come to this world in the winter, and we should show him the seeds 
and roots and bulbs which were to bloom the next spring, it would 
be hard for him, with no experience, to believe that such beautiful 
flowers could come from such unsightly objects. Then we could 
take him to a greenhouse and show him specimens, facts, which 
prove what would come from seeds and bulbs. So the resurrection 
of Jesus was a specimen of the resurrection, an incontrovertible 
proof of what is possible to us all. 



A Type of our Resurrection Bodies.— The resurrection of 
Jesus is the assurance of our own resurrection, with spiritual bodies 
like his glorious body ; all sickness, weakness, and pain gone ; but 
new life, new powers, new joys, beyond our highest conception, and 
the assurance of the recognition of friends, as we recognize the plants 
that grow from each kind of seed. 



Life like a Seed. — This life is like the seed ; the resurrection 
life, like the plant that grows from the seed. Who would dream 



XXVIII: l6-I9 MATTHEW 455 



A.B. 30. 

April. 

CHRIST'S 

LAbT 
COMMAND. 

JEKC8ALEM. 



i6. If Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, 
into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 

17. And when they saw him, they worshipped him : but some 
doubted. 

18. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying;, All 
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 

19. H Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost : 

that all the strength and beauty of an oak was enclosed in the 
acorn.? Who would imagine that the radiance and fragrance of the 
rose could develop from the seed of the rose, or the brilliance of a 
tulip from a bulb } How could a seed under ground, if it had con- 
sciousness, obtain any faintest idea of what the springtime world is 
above ground ; or from its own form, mouldering into 

dust, what its nature, and surroundings, and work would ?^f * 

=> Flowers, 

be when it grew mto the air and sunlight i Or suppose 

some inhabitant of another world should visit this world in winter, 

and looking at the seeds and bulbs in the seed store, or the bare 

trees in the fields, should be told what they were to become in 

spring. How could you make known the fact if he hesitated to 

believe .'' You would take him to a greenhouse and let him see 

specimens, the actual results of seeds planted. Now Jesus raised 

from the dead is a specimen, a fact, which proves what may be true 

of men. 

Hints from Nature. — The caterpillar changed to a butterfly ; 
the charcoal and the diamond ; the silver cup from the silver ore. 



The Watch and its Case.— The case represents the body, the 
works the soul. The works can be taken from the old case, and put 
into a new one, and go on just the same as before. It is really the 
same watch. 

Picture. — The Ascensmt, Dore, Pacchiarotto, Luca della Robbia, 
Correggio, Perugino, John La Farge {in the Church of the Ascensmt, New 
York). 

19. Go AND Teach all Nations.— The late Duke of Wellington 
once met a young clergyman, who being aware of his Grace's former 



4:56 SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XX VIII : 20 



20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, 
lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. 

residence in the East, and of his familiarity with the 
() d^*' ^"^ ignorance and obstinacy of the Hindoos in support of 

their false religion, gravely proposed the following 
question : " Does not your Grace think it almost useless and ex- 
travagant to preach the gospel to the Hindoos } " The duke im- 
mediately rejoined, "That is not your business. Your business is to 
obey your marching orders, — ' Preach the gospel to every creature.' " 



Necessity of Spreading the Gospel. — (i) Real light always 
shines, and the brighter the light, the farther it shines. (2) Flowing, 
moving water is pure. Stagnant water becomes impure. (3) The 
spinning top stands ; stop its spinning, and it falls. 



Christianity a Missionary Religion. — " The very soul of our 
religion is missionary, progressive, world embracing it would 
cease to exist if it ceased to be missionary, if it disregarded the 
parting words of its Founder, ' Go ye, therefore, and teach all 
nations,' etc. The spirit of truth is the life-spring of all religion ; 
and where it exists, it must manifest itself, it must plead, it must 
persuade, it must convince and convert. There may be times when 
silence is gold, and speech silver ; but there are times also when 
silence is death, and speech is life, — the very life of Pentecost. 
Look at the religions in which the missionary spirit has been at 
work, and compare them with those in which any attempt to con- 
vince others by argument, to save souls, to bear witness to the 
truth, is treated with pity or scorn. The former are alive ; the 
latter are dying or dead. " — Max Miiller, 



Charts of the proj^ress of Christianity can be found in Dor- 
chester's " Religious Progress," and in Arthur Pierson's " Acts of 
the Holy Spirit." 

Picture. — Dora's "Triumph of Christianity." 



The World for Christ, — " At Wisconsin, I saw on the wall of 
the convention a sentence which thrilled my soul, ' Wisconsin for 



XXVin:20 MATTHEW 4SY 

Christ.' That was the motto of these young people. The next day 
I was in Iowa, and I saw the motto, * Iowa for Christ.' The next 
day I was at Missouri, and I saw the same words, ' Missouri for 
Christ.' Two or three days afterward I was in the province of 
Ontario, and there again the motto was, * Ontario for Christ.' One 
of these days the great chorus of the voices of the young people will 
arise, and it will be 'Our Country for Christ ;' both countries for 
Christ on both sides of the line ; America, America for Christ ! 
and I think, as we listen and strain our ears, we shall hear an 
answering voice coming back from across the water from the young 
people in dear old mother England, we shall catch the tone of their 
voices, and hear them cry out, ' England, England for Christ ! ' and 
I think we shall hear the young people in the other lands engaged 
in the same work in missionary lands, in China, Japan, Australia, all 
the world over, we shall hear them cry out, * Our country, our 
country for Christ I ' and it will not be long before voices from all 
over the world shall arise from this great chorus and throng of 
young people, 'The World for Christ.'" 

— Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D., in his London address, May, 189 1. 



The Measure of Missionary Spirit.— In The Outlook for July 
3, 1897, there was a capital article on this subject by Mr. F. W. 
Hewes, from which the following diagrams and condensed explana- 
tions have been taken, by permission. The full explanations can be 
found in The Outlook. 

*' While it is not true that 'money is the measure of all things,' 
it is undoubtedly true that people contribute money to aid 
any undertaking just as they sympathize with the object of the un- 
dertaking. In this sense, then, money contributed for the support 
of missions is a measure of the missionary spirit of the population or 
of any particular denomination. 

" Some months ago The Outlook asked the writer to ascertain, if 
practicable, whether the present generation is contributing as lib- 
erally to missionary work as past generations. The inquiry em- 
braces in all fourteen active missionary denominations and the 
American Tract Society." 

Diagram 1— Annual Contributions for Missions.— The ex- 
planations are shown in the " Study No. i." The setbacks in con- 
tributions are seen to be on account of financial depressions and the 
civil war. 



458 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS 



XXVIII : 20 



G.m\id Coniriktion forHlissiong 

Ex]^(AoTg :- EqcIi dot represeris llie conlfibalmTi for a sirijle, 
yeoTjOTid is placed V^h or loHj.Qccordiry as \he coTilTibuViom m%. 
targe oTSmalK Eodj .^rpffldJcdflrline represenls a smgkaear.ondeQth 
CMisii ye«r line bears a circle , corrs'ing the census dale. 

Ttie hcflVj peTjttndicuikir lines divide the Visler^ irrto ten ijeor „ 

pensds, lo ^M& fte stoda (^ llw proloTltonal and avexage ^"'"^°° "°""'' 
exhib'its io\to«)\T\3. 



fi-Tfill'iiH Mars. 



10 BlJIKoTi Dollar* 



6 'UlillionllsllaTs 






^Pq 



ttrti'illionPollaTS 



Psnw 



iniiiiioTiDoUflrs 



•879, 



NliiiliioBDrilaTS . ^ 



Qyprfljfi Qnmd Contriktion for missions 

t^lcn-ilear Periods 
1815-1894 

txplanaloTi):- Eadi dot repTeSents the aveTaqe QTinuiol coTitribttY\ot> 
for a trn-<|eQr period , arid is placed KigK or loiu , accOTdiT\9 as the Qverogff 
Y(QS krrge or smott. l>ie antiuol overoge (iTniEaTe^t hundreds ti do\iQrs) 
is pfiTited with each dot. Th&dat« over eGch dol indicates the census 
year of each period. 



ZffiWieTiDe^loTS 




XXVIII : 20 MATTHEW 



4:69 



Diagram II— Ten- Year Records.— " While the annual record 
portrays the history of the chief financial struggles and triumphs, 
the general history of progress is better learned by the study of 
averages. ' Study No. 2 ' begins thirty years earlier than No. i, with 
the 1820 period (1815-1824), in which the aggregate contribution 
averaged $40,600 per year, as noted with the 1820 dot at the lower 
left-hand corner of the diagram. That was in the infancy of the 
existing Protestant missionary organizations. The increase, period 
by period, is best read from the diagram itself. 

"The chief lesson is that, in spite of the marked irregularities 
shown by the annual record, the ten-year averages show a steady 
and remarkable progress, culminating in the 1890 period with an 
annual average increase over the 1880 period of more than six million 
dollars, in spite of its two panic years, 1893 and 1894 ; or, starting with 
the Civil War period (i860), a total increase in thirty years of almost 
460 per cent. This is marvelous progress." 



Diagram III— Per Capita Records.— "An increased total, 
however large, does not prove increased liberality, for the popula- 
tion making the contribution may have increased just as rapidly. 
Hence the next step is to analyze this remarkable history by com- 
paring the contribution with the population, as in ' Study No. 3.' 

" The increased contribution for each person, starting at the Civil 
War period (i860) is, of course not as great as that of absolute con- 
tribution, but makes a record of over 180 per cent., and emphatically 
proves an astonishing increase of liberality as measured by popu- 
lation. 

" To better understand what this means, it must be recalled that 
this 'each man, woman, and child' includes over fifteen million 
children under ten years of age, and more than six million persons 
over ten years of age unable to write. It also includes all the help- 
less, the idle, the criminals, the insane, and the inmates of hospitals, 
asylums, and poorhouses ; all the foreign population and Indians; 
all the Roman Catholics, and all who attend no church. Very few 
of this vast multitude ever contribute at all. Were all these non- 
contributors excluded, and only the probable contributors included, 
how the contribution per capita would be multiplied, and what a 
record it would be ! For it must be remembered that the contribu- 
tion to missions, as such, is only a small part of the contribution to 
the support of the Gospel in its many manifestations." 



460 



SUGGESTIVE ILLtTSTRATtONS XXVIII : 20 




XXVIII : 20 MATTHEW 461 

Diagram IV~Contributions per Wealth.— "The nation has 
grown rapidly in wealth, and the question whether the contributions 
to missions have increased in proportion is answered by * Study 
No. 4.' Up to i860, wealth was largely estimated, the first wealth 
census, that of 1850, being also largely estimated. Hence while the 
black dots give the proportion of gifts, to the government estimates, 
the white dots give the probable actual progress. 

" But leaving out the earlier records and taking the i860 period as 
a starting point, the 1 890 record shows that wealth had increased its 
proportionate contribution almost forty per cent., a truly wonderful 
achievement ; and yet it is since i860 that the phenomenal growth of 
wealth has been made. 

" Nor is this all. The contribution for each $1,000 of total wealth, 
as shown in this exhibit, is only a fractional part of the whole. In 
the first place, the limited number of denominations embraced in 
the exhibits do not include all of the organized missionary contri- 
bution of the United States. In the second place, since the close of 
the Civil War, and especially during the past twenty years, there 
has developed within some of the larger denominations a practice of 
sending a considerable proportion of the total contribution to foreign 
mission fields direct, and none of these moneys are represented in 
the exhibits, for they do not appear in the official reports of the mis- 
sionary societies. 

" Besides this, there is an increasingly large fund contributed an- 
nually by Sunday schools and young peoples' societies to a very 
diversified range of home mission work, little of which is ever 
included in official reports of the regular missionary organizations. 
Besides this, many communities sustain by popular contribution 
hospitals, orphanages, and other benevolent institutions, which al- 
though wholly unrelated to mission boards and their organized 
auxiliaries, yet receive their contributions largely from the same 
individuals. 

" Beyond all this, the last few years have witnessed, in all our 
larger cities, in the same spirit, a great development of institutional 
and social mission work. All these should be reckoned in, to ascer- 
tain the full measure of the missionary spirit among those whose 
only way of obedience is to give money, that others may give per- 
sonal service. 

" What a magnificent total it would mean ! What a marvelous 
record of growth it would show, especially in the fourth generation ! 
Not only would the 1870 and 18S0 records rise much further above 



462 



SUGGESTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS XXVIII : 20 



Qveroge QriTiuolllliss'ioTiaTyConbibutioTi 
1885 -I89f 

(l4. Denommoliofls) 




m^n\ 



Refonned 



Qveroae QnTiufll Tnissionory Conlnbution 

/OT 

EGch§IOO(JChurcli 

-'°-^^ florist (m-DenoTnmationsj 




XXVIII : 20 MATTHEW 463 

that of i860 ; the 1890 record would tower upward so far, outstripping 
the increase of wealth, as to shame every pessimist. 

" As a cr}^stallization of the results of the investigation of growth, 
the following comparison will be helpful. From i860 to 1890 valua- 
tions increased : 

Farms and farm property o 100 per cent. 

Church property 296 " 

Total wealth 302 

Manufactured products 397 " 

Missionary contributions 460 " 



Diagrams V and VI explain themselves with a little study. Note 
how easily and widely mere totals may mislead. 

For example, the United Presbyterian, who rank ninth in total 
contributions, take second place when measured by the "as ye are 
prospered " test. — F. W. Heuues, i7i the Outlook, N. Y. 



A Rising or a Setting Sun.— John Fisk in relating the 
story of the Federal Convention for the forming of the Con- 
stitution of the United States of 1789, a work of the great- 
est difficulty and importance, says that, on the back of the 
president's quaint, black armchair there was emblazoned 
a half sun, brilliant with gilded rays. At the close of the I'raiifelinat 
session of several months, during which the Constitu- cojiygntion. 
tion was adopted, as the meeting was breaking up, and 
Washington arose, Franklin pointed to the chair and made it the text 
for a prophecy. " As I have been sitting here all these weeks," he 
said, '' I have often wondered whether yonder sun was rising or set- 
ting. But now I know that it is a rising sun." The sun of Chris- 
tianity is a rising sun, and is rapidly moving on to the perfect day. 



"Select Notes. 



?? 



BY 



F. N. PELOUBET D.D., and 
M. A. PELOUBET. 

An IIliistratiYe Illiiilnatmg Coimentary on the 
International Snnday-Scliool Lessons. 

JSSUED AS^^MUALLY. 

The great and constantly increasing popularity of the " Select 
Notes" proves conclusively that they completely fill the need of an 
explanatory text-book that shall present in an attractive and con- 
vincing form, the salient and teachable points of the passage studied. 
Dr. Peloubet's wealth of resource and experience enable him to do 
this in the best possible manner. He is always fresh, always illus- 
trative, and always successful in bringing out, in orderly arrange- 
ment, a strong presentation of the facts, incident, and logic of the 
lesson. 

The " Select Notes " are used by the leading teachers the world 
around, and their universal commendation of them, after over a 
quarter century's use, should convince every teacher that they can 
do better and more helpful work for their class by using " Select 
Notes " in their study of the lessons, either with or without the 
Lesson Quarterlies. 

It is fully illustrated by original sketches and engravings prepared 
solely for it, and amply provided with maps, chronologies, etc. 

Cloth, price, - = = - $1.25 

Sent postpaid on receipt of price. 

W. A. WILDE & CO., 

WESTERN office: BOSTON, MASS. : 

46 JACKSON BOULEVARD. 25 SROMFIELD STREET. 

CHICAGO, ILL. 



y-r /. /. X 



Kjh\ 



i Ir.^A 



^-2^ 



t;^ 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: June 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



